Genetics (GENET)
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RICHARD ORDWAY, Chair, Intercollege Graduate Program in Genetics
208 Mueller Laboratory
University Park, PA 16802
814-863-5693
GAVIN P. ROBERTSON, Co-chair, Intercollege Graduate Program in Genetics
Room T3423, Mail Code CH74
Penn State College of Medicine
500 University Drive
Hershey, PA 17033
717-531-8098
Degrees Conferred:
Ph.D., M.S.
The Graduate Faculty
- Sarah E. Ades, Ph.D. (MIT) Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
- Hiroshi Akashi, Ph.D. (Chicago) Assistant Professor of Biology
- Charles Anderson, Ph.D. (Stanford) Assistant Professor of Biology
- Avery August, Ph.D. (Cornell) Assistant Professor of Immunology
- John E. Ayers, Ph.D. (Penn State) Professor of Plant Pathology
- Paul Babitzke, Ph.D. (Georgia) Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
- Lu Bai, Ph.D. (Cornell) Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Physics
- Guy F. Barbato, Ph.D. (Virginia Tech) Associate Professor of Poultry Science
- David Blizard, Ph.D. (Wales) Senior Research Scientist, Center for Development and Health Genetics
- David M. Braun, Ph.D. (Missouri) Assistant Professor of Biology
- Sarah Kay Bronson, Ph.D. (Washington U) Assistant Professor of Cellular and Molecular Physiology (Hershey)
- Craig Cameron, Ph.D. (Case Western Reserve) Louis Martarano Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
- John E. Carlson, Ph.D. (Illinois) Associate Professor of Molecular Genetics
- Laura Carrel, Ph.D. (Standford) Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Hershey)
- Douglas R. Cavener, Ph.D. (Georgia) Professor of Biology
- Vincent Chau, Ph.D. (Virginia) Professor of Cellular and Molecular Physiology (Hershey)
- Keith C. Cheng, M.D. (NYU School of Medicine); Ph.D. (Washington) Professor of Pathology (Hershey)
- Hui-Ling Chiang, Ph.D. (Harvard) Associate Professor of Cellular and Molecular Physiology (Hershey)
- Surinder Chopra, Ph.D. (Vrije U, Brussels) Assistant Professor of Maize Genetics
- Barbara J. Christ, Ph.D. (British Columbia) Professor of Plant Pathology
- Gary Clawson, M.D., Ph.D. (Michigan State) Professor of Pathology, and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Hershey)
- Pamela H. Correll, Ph.D. (George Washington) Associate Professor of Immunology
- Diana Cox-Foster, Ph.D. (Illinois) Professor of Entomology
- Richard Craig, Ph.D. (Penn State) J. Franklin Styer Professor Emeritus of Horticultural Botany; Professor Emeritus of Plant Breeding
- Rebecca Craven, Ph.D. (Tennessee) Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology (Hershey)
- Liwang Cui, Ph.D. (Kentucky) Assistant Professor of Entomology
- Claude W. dePamphilis, Ph.D. (Georgia) Associate Professor of Biology
- Kristin A. Eckert, Ph.D. (Wisconsin) Associate Professor of Pathology (Hershey)
- Robert B. Eckhardt, Ph.D. (Michigan) Professor of Developmental Genetics and Evolutionary Morphology
- James G. Ferry, Ph.D. (Illinois) Stanley Person Professorof Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
- Joanna Floros, Ph.D. (Temple) Professor of Cellular and Molecular Physiology (Hershey)
- Majid R. Foolad, Ph.D. (California, Davis) Professor of Plant Genetics
- David Geiser, Ph.D. (Northwestern) Assistant Professor of Plant Pathology
- Henry D. Gerhold, Ph.D. (Yale) Professor of Forest Genetics
- David S. Gilmour, Ph.D. (Cornell) Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
- Sergei Grigoryev, Ph.D. (Moscow State) Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Hershey)
- Santhosh Girirajan, Ph.D. (Medical College of Virginia, Va. Commonwealth Univ) Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Assistant Professor of Anthropology
- Edward G. Gunther, Ph.D. (Yale) Assistant Professor, Jake Gittlen Cancer Research Institute (Hershey)
- Kyung-An Han, Ph.D. (SUNY, Buffalo) Assistant Professor of Biology
- Wendy Hanna-Rose, Ph.D. (Harvard) Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
- Ross C. Hardison, Ph.D. (Iowa) Professor of Biochemistry
- Eric T. Harvill, Ph.D. (California, Los Angeles) Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Infectious Disease
- Biao He, Ph.D. (SUNY Health Sciences Ctr, Brooklyn) Assistant Professor of Virology
- S. Blair Hedges, Ph.D. (Maryland) Professor of Biology
- Christopher R. Herzog, Ph.D. (Medical College of Ohio) Assistant Professor of Pharmacology
- Heather Hines, Ph.D. (Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) Assistant Professor of Biology and Entomology
- Jianming Hu, Ph.D. (Penn State) Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology (Hershey)
- David R. Huff, Ph.D. (California, Davis) Associate Professor of Turfgrass Breeding and Genetics
- Seogchan Kang, Ph.D. (Wisconsin) Associate Professor of Plant Pathology
- Ralph L. Keil, Ph.D. (Cornell) Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Hershey)
- Kenneth Keiler, Ph.D. (MIT) Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
- Zhi-Chun Lai, Ph.D. (Albert Einstein College of Medicine) Associate Professor of Biology, and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
- Philip Lazarus, Ph.D. (McGill) Professor of Pharmacology and Health Evaluation Science (Hershey)
- Robert Levenson, Ph.D. (SUNY, Stony Brook) Professor of Pharmacology (Hershey)
- David Liu, Ph.D. (CUNY) Assistant Professor of Neural and Behavioral Science
- Bernhard Lüscher, Ph.D. (Zurich) Associate Professor of Biology, and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
- Hong Ma, Ph.D. (MIT) Professor of Biology
- Wojciech Makalowski, Ph.D. (Poznan, Poland) Associate Professor of Biology
- Kateryna Makova, Ph.D. (Texas Tech) Assistant Professor of Biology
- Yingwei Mao, Ph.D. (Michigan) Assistant Professor of Biology
- Gerald E. McClearn, Ph.D. (Wisconsin) Evan Pugh Professor of Health and Human Development
- Patricia McLaughlin, D.Ed. (Penn State) Professor of Neural and Behavioral Science (Hershey)
- Bruce A. McPheron, Ph.D. (Illinois) Professor of Entomology
- Paula C. McSteen, Ph.D. (East Anglia) Assistant Professor of Biology
- Pamela J. Mitchell, Ph.D. (Columbia) Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
- David Mu, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Pathology, and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Hershey)
- Kathleen M. Mulder, Ph.D. (SUNY, Buffalo) Professor of Pharmacology (Hershey)
- Joshua Muscat, Ph.D. (New York University) Professor of Public Health Science (Hershey)
- Masatoshi Nei, Ph.D. (Kyoto, Japan) Evan Pugh Professor of Biology
- Davis T. W. Ng, Ph.D. (Northwestern) Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
- B. Tracy Nixon, Ph.D. (MIT) Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Pharmacology (Hershey)
- Curt Omiecinski, Ph.D. (Washington, Seattle) Professor of Veterinary Science; H. Thomas and Dorothy Willets Hallowell Chair
- Richard W. Ordway, Ph.D. (UMass Medical School) Associate Professor of Biology
- Leslie Parent, M.D. (Duke) Assistant Professor of Medicine, and Microbiology and Immunology (Hershey)
- Robert F. Paulson, Ph.D. (California, San Francisco) Associate Professor of Veterinary Science
- Anthony E. Pegg, Ph.D. (Cambridge) Evan Pugh Professor of Cellular and Molecular Physiology and
- Gary H. Perdew, Ph.D. (Oregon State) Professor of Veterinary Science
- Jeffrey M. Peters, Ph.D. (California, Davis) Assistant Professor of Environmental Toxicology
- C. Channa Reddy, Ph.D. (Indian Inst of Science) Distinguished Professor of Veterinary Science
- Joseph C. Reese, Ph.D. (Illinois) Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
- Philip L. Reno, Ph.D. (Kent State) Assistant Professor of Anthropology
- Joan T. Richtsmeier, Ph.D. (Northwestern) Professor of Anthropology
- Marylyn D. Ritchie, Ph.D. (Vanderbilt) Director, Center for Systems Genomics; Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
- Gavin P. Robertson, Ph.D. (California, Riverside) Assistant Professor of Pharmacology and Pathology (Hershey)
- Daniel J. Royse, Ph.D. (Illinois) Professor of Plant Pathology
- Jeffery Sample, Ph.D. (South Florida) Professor of Micrbiology and Immunology (Hershey)
- Stephen W. Schaeffer, Ph.D. (Georgia) Associate Professor of Biology
- Robert A. Schlegel, Ph.D. (Harvard) Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
- Lisa Shantz, Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins) Associate Professor of Cellular and Molecular Physiology (Hershey)
- Cooduvalli S. Shashikant, Ph.D. (Osmania U, India) Associate Professor of Molecular and Developmental Biology
- Yuguang (Roger) Shi, Ph.D. (Australian Natl U) Assistant Professor of Cellular and Molecular Physiology
- Mark D. Shriver, Ph.D. (Texas, Houston) Assistant Professor of Anthropology
- Sharon P. Shriver, Ph.D. (Case Western Reserve) Assistant Professor of Biology
- Esther Siegfried, Ph.D. (Washington U) Assistant Professor of Biology, and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
- David J. Spector, Ph.D. (Pennsylvania) Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology (Hershey)
- Graham H. Thomas, Ph.D. (Edinburgh) Associate Professor of Biology, and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
- Chen-Pei David Tu, Ph.D. (Cornell) Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
- David J. Vandenbergh, Ph.D. (Penn State) Assistant Professor of Biobehavioral Health
- Michael F. Verderame, Ph.D. (Columbia) Associate Professor of Medicine; Assistant Professor of
- Microbiology and Immunology (Hershey)
- George P. Vogler, Ph.D. (Colorado) Associate Professor of Biobehavioral Health
- Kent E. Vrana, Ph.D. (Louisiana State) Elliot S. Vesell Professor of Pharmacology (Hershey)
- Kenneth M. Weiss, Ph.D. (Michigan) Evan Pugh Professor of Anthropology and Genetics
- John W. Wills, Ph.D. (Tennessee, Knoxville) Professor of Microbiology and Immunology (Hershey)
- Jin-Ming Yang, Ph.D. (Shanghai Medical, China) Professor of Pharmacology (Hershey)
- Ian S. Zagon, Ph.D. (Colorado) Professor of Neuroscience and Anatomy (Hershey)
- Samuel Shao-Min Zhang, Ph.D. (Tokyo, Japan) Assistant Professor of Neural and Behavioral Science (Hershey)
- Jiyue Zhu, Ph.D. (Dartmouth Medical School) Assistant Professor of Cellular and Molecular Physiology (Hershey)
The Intercollege Graduate Program in Genetics is designed to prepare graduates for rapidly expanding opportunities in genetics in academic institutions, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, private research institutes, governmental research laboratories, etc. The program includes faculty from eighteen departments in the Eberly College of Science and the Colleges of Agricultural Sciences, Health and Human Development, and the Liberal Arts at the University Park campus and the Penn State College of Medicine at The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. Beginning and advanced graduate-level courses are taught by active research faculty members in their own areas of specialization. Fields available of study and research include molecular, biochemical, physiological, cellular, behavioral, developmental, pharmacological, genomics, bioinformatics, population, and evolutionary genetics; also applications in recombinant DNA technology, genetic engineering, breeding plants or animals, and genetic counseling of humans. Please see the list of faculty on the Web site www.genetics.psu.edu (Opens New Window) for the full range of areas represented.
Admission Requirements
Scores from the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) are required for admission. Only under exceptional circumstances will an applicant be considered without these scores. In addition, applicants should have a cumulative undergraduate grade-point average of at least 3.00 and appropriate courses in biology (including genetics, organic chemistry or biochemistry), statistics, other sciences, and communications. The application must include three letters of reference and a statement describing and explaining interests in genetics, types of organism and research preferred, and goals during and after graduate studies.
All application materials should be submitted by January 31 for the best chance of admission and financial aid. Requirements listed here are in addition to general Graduate School requirements stated in the GENERAL INFORMATION section of the Graduate Bulletin.
Master's Degree Requirements
The master's degree program can serve as an alternative for students who, for any number of reasons, do not proceed to the Ph.D. A committee appointed for each student, with the approval of the program chair, determines specific courses, communication skills, and research acceptable for satisfying M.S. degree requirements. Students must meet the M.S. degree requirements specified by the Graduate School in the Graduate Bulletin. In addition, specific genetics course requirements include 12 credits selected from a list of approved genetics courses, 3 credits in statistics, and 2 credits per year in genetics colloquium. A thesis is required of all candidates for the M.S. degree.
Doctoral Degree Requirements
The student's Ph.D. committee, appointed after a written and oral candidacy examination is passed, determines specific requirements for courses and research, and administers the comprehensive and final examinations. The Graduate School requires no specified number of credits for the attainment of the doctorate. However, the Genetics program requires 15 credits in approved genetics courses, 3 credits in statistics, and 2 credits per year in genetics colloquium. The requirement in communication and foreign language skills is the same as that of the thesis adviser's department or program. All Ph.D. students are required to prepare and formally defend a thesis involving independent research.
Other Relevant Information
Because the selection of the faculty adviser is one of the most important decisions that each student will make during their graduate career, we offer a rotation program to allow students to do three laboratory rotations with different faculty during the first semester. At the end of the first semester, students choose their doctoral adviser in consultation with the faculty adviser and chair of the Genetics program. Although most students accepted into the Genetics graduate program are admitted to the rotation program, some students may be admitted to receive training by a specific faculty member. All admissions must be approved by the IGDP Genetics Admissions Committee.
Student Aid
Graduate assistantships available to students in this program and other forms of student aid are described in the STUDENT AID section of the Graduate Bulletin. In most participating departments, Genetics applicants are eligible for departmental teaching or research assistantships, and other assistantships supported by grant funds of individual faculty who make these award decisions.
Applicants with a grade-point average above 3.60 and superior GRE scores are encouraged to request fellowship applications from the Graduate School before January 31.
Courses
Graduate courses carry numbers from 500 to 599 and 800 to 899. Advanced undergraduate courses numbered between 400 and 499 may be used to meet some graduate degree requirements when taken by graduate students. Courses below the 400 level may not. A graduate student may register for or audit these courses in order to make up deficiencies or to fill in gaps in previous education but not to meet requirements for an advanced degree.
GENETICS (GENET) course list
DATE LAST REVIEWED BY THE GRADUATE SCHOOL: 5/24/04
Faculty updated: 2/27/13
