Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry

General Overview of the Ph.D. Program

The large number of faculty with diversified interests together with the collaborative nature of the Department makes for an ideal environment for successful learning and research. We set high standards, in both coursework as well as research to ensure our graduates continue to be highly regarded members of the scientific community. Students work closely with their supervisors to develop thier PhD thesis. In addition to this students receive a strong background in the physical/chemical sciences as they relate to pharmaceutical research through a comprehensive set of core and coursework offered by the department. The program also offers a large number of electives that allow students to tailor their education to mesh with their specific area of scientific interest. Click for specific information regarding coursework.

Individuals that are selected for admission into the program will receive a competitive stipend, tuition and basic health insurance. In addition, students can be selected to participate in the Takeru Higuchi Intersearch Program, which allows students to conduct a portion of their research at the Victorian College of Pharmacy, which is a part of Monash University located in Melbourne Australia. Ideally, the students select a surrogate advisor that specializes in an area of research outside that of the primary advisor’s, thus allowing for more breadth to their overall research project. Similarly, many students are participants in the NIH sponsored Pharmaceutical Chemistry Biotechnology Training Grant, which allows students to spend a summer doing an internship at a pharmaceutical company specializing in the formulation, analysis and delivery of biotechnology products. Although this industrial internship is a requirement for those involved in the training grant, any student in the program may participate in an internship at a pharmaceutical company after discussion with the student’s research advisor. Moreover, the Department is a full member of the Globalization of Pharmaceutical Education Network (GPEN) that is held biannually at other member institutions and senior students are typically selected to participate in these events. It should be mentioned that the GPEN meeting, now attended by some 43 academic institutions across the world was created here at KU back in 1996 by Professor Ronald Borchardt. Collectively, the participants in these programs have generally found the experiences to be extremely beneficial to their overall experience at KU.

Students with particularly outstanding undergraduate records may be eligible for a number of special awards. The department of pharmaceutical chemistry has been named as a Madison and Lila Self Graduate Fellowship Program partner at The University of Kansas. The program provides a generous stipend and tuition to outstanding students for four years of graduate study. Other university-level awards include the Honors Fellowship, awarded on a competitive basis to incoming graduate students throughout the university, the Dissertation Fellowship, awarded to outstanding students during their last year of doctoral study, and the Graduate Minority Opportunity Fund Fellowship, awarded to outstanding ethnic minority students for work towards the doctoral degree. At the department level, the Takeru Higuchi and the Siegfried Lindenbaum Fellowships are awarded each year to incoming graduate students with high promise.