University of Cambridge

SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS

Cambridge University uses the term “supervisor” for the Cambridge faculty member who is your mentor and “second supervisor” for your Janelia mentor. You must nominate a Janelia mentor in your application and direct your initial research proposal toward their lab. You may also wish to suggest a Cambridge supervisor (but you are not required to do so). For information on Cambridge academic staff, please use the University web site.

Cambridge University requires that you spend at least three terms in residence at Cambridge. These may be consecutive and in the first year. Cambridge does not require any specific course or quantity of courses. Indeed, you might spend all of your time in Cambridge doing research, depending on your IEP. Cambridge does require that you spend 15 hours each year learning “transferable skills”. Cambridge has specific requirements for the format of your thesis and other matters.

You are entitled to take any course of academic study offered by Cambridge University, at the graduate or undergraduate level. However, we require that your IEP includes a full list of these classes and that it be approved by your committee. Any changes to the plan must also be so approved. We will design a specific program of courses as we develop your IEP, tailored to fit your needs.

Your Ph.D. degree will be from the University of Cambridge and you will be required to satisfy all University rules and requirements. These include specific residence times, thesis format rules, and so forth. The University is particularly concerned that your Ph.D. program be completed within four years.

There are several possible ways that you could spend your first year in Cambridge. Which mechanism you employ will be agreed before you begin your studies by you and your committee:

• You may undertake some combination of courses and research as agreed in your IEP. You would conclude by submitting a first year report, to be assessed by the Degree Committee for the Faculty of Biology (essentially a report on your first IEP, together with your second IEP). Upon the acceptance of your report, you will be registered for the Ph.D. degree.
  
  
• You may register for a specific one-year Master's program (MPhil), such as the program in computational biology. In this case you will be required to spend another 3 years working toward the PhD degree.
  
  
• You may register for a “Certificate of Post-graduate Study” which requires a dissertation at the end of the first year. This also can serve in lieu of the first year report to the University.

College Membership

Membership of the University of Cambridge also requires membership of one of the constituent colleges. During the Cambridge application process you may also apply to up to two colleges. Churchill College has guaranteed admission to all members of the Janelia program, but you may choose another college if you wish. Colleges in Cambridge normally provide accommodation, pastoral care, and a congenial social environment. Your Cambridge supervisor need not be a member of your college. For more information on the Cambridge colleges visit http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/gsprospectus/colleges/. To apply to the Janelia Farm/Cambridge University program, please go to our online application page and follow the directions there.

About the University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge, one of the oldest universities in the world, is renowned for its advances in scientific research and education. It has a strong tradition of leading research in the sciences and mathematics, counting among its members Isaac Newton, William Harvey, Charles Darwin, James Clerk Maxwell, J.J. Thompson, Ernest Rutherford, Paul Dirac, Alan Turing, Francis Crick, Fred Sanger, James D. Watson, and Stephen Hawking Since 1904, 81 members of the university have won the Nobel Prize, more than any other institution. Of approximately 100 university departments, institutes, and centers (excluding clinical sciences), almost 40 are in the areas of science, math, or engineering. Graduate education at Cambridge University is well known for its strong emphasis on intensive research, and this emphasis is much in line with HHMI.

Photo: Mark Mniszko