Neuroscience Graduate Partnerships Program
Coursework and Degree Requirements
Coursework
Required and elective courses for first- and second-year students.
In the first year of study, ALL entering students (GPP and NSGP students alike) enroll in a set of courses at Brown designed to provide fundamental knowledge in neuroscience. You can find a description of the courses on the NSGP website.
Students may also select from a large number of courses and seminars offered at NIH through the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences (FAES) and by the major departments in the program at Brown including Neuroscience, Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences, Applied Mathematics, Engineering, Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry, and Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology and Biotechnology. These courses are chosen to enhance students’ laboratory research experience. During the second year and beyond, it may be possible for GPP students to participate in Brown courses electronically at a distance, with approval of the professor and the department.
Laboratory Rotations
A crucial responsibility for new graduate students is to choose a research area and a Thesis Advisor. In order to acquire sufficient knowledge to make an informed thesis lab selection, students complete lab rotations. A lab rotation consists of a research project under the supervision of a faculty trainer which lasts several months. Students complete their first lab rotation at NIH during the summer before the start of first year courses. During the first year at Brown, students complete one or two further rotations. While these rotations cannot serve to establish a thesis project at Brown, they can be very useful in acquiring research and interpersonal skills that will be useful to the student's future research. Upon moving to NIH at the start of the second year, the student may either return to the same NIH lab to begin thesis work, if the student, faculty member, and program directors agree, or do a second rotation.
Advising and Thesis Committee
Each first year student is assigned an advisor from the program faculty. This faculty advisor, together with one of the Program Directors, serves as the student’s First Year Advisory Committee. The Advisory Committee will meet at the beginning of each semester during the student’s first year to provide guidance in coursework, laboratory rotations, grant applications, and general program information.
Before the end of the third semester, students will consult with the Program Directors and their First Year Advisory Committee and identify a faculty member in whose laboratory they will conducted their thesis research.
The student and Thesis Advisor will also select a Thesis Committee. The minimal size of the thesis committee is 3: mentor, PI at NIH who does not collaborate with the mentor, and a Brown faculty member. The committee must include a tenured professor at Brown, but could also include non-tenured Brown faculty (as well as NIH PI's who do collaborate with the mentor). This committee will provide continued support to the student in all matters related to the student’s academic work. In addition, before the final thesis defense, the student and thesis committee must select an outside reader, unaffiliated with either institution, to participate in the committee's evaluation of the student’s defense, which will take place at Brown.
PhD Candidacy
Students must pass the comprehensive exam and the preliminary exam in order to candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience.
The comprehensive exam is a two-part exam that is administered after the end of the first and second semesters.
The preliminary exam is comprised of a written research proposal and an oral defense of the proposed research. Before the beginning of the fifth semester of study, students are required to generate a written research proposal in the format of an NIH R01 grant application. This research plan includes specific aims, significance, background, experimental design and detailed methods of the proposed thesis research. Once the written proposal is approved by the Thesis Committee, students will orally present the proposal to the Committee and defend its significance and approach. Acceptance of the project by the Thesis Committee constitutes passage of the Preliminary Exam.
Thesis
When the thesis research is completed, students synthesize their laboratory results and compose a doctoral dissertation. The appropriate format for this written dissertation is described at the Brown University Dissertation Guidelines website. At this time, a qualified outside reader with relevant expertise is invited to join the Thesis Committee and the written dissertation is sent to this expanded committee for evaluation and revision. The written dissertation will form the basis for a public seminar that must take place at Brown University. A closed oral defense attended by the Thesis Committee and other interested Neuroscience Graduate Program faculty will follow the seminar. After the thesis defense, the final doctoral dissertation and all associated forms and documents related to the completion of a Ph.D. must be submitted to the Graduate School. Please consult the Graduate School Dissertation Guidelines for forms, documents, and additional information regarding the thesis defense process