Professional Development
The educational philosophy of the Biological Sciences Ph.D. Program is to provide a supportive and stimulating environment for highly talented individuals to develop skills and experience necessary to become research leaders in academic and biotechnology, biomedical, or pharmaceutical industries.
Our program recognizes that graduate students have various career goals and that training and advising requires a broad range of information. Ph.D.'s graduating from our program will have sought after skills and experiences suited to a broad range of career paths - ranging from faculty positions at research universities and teaching colleges through positions in private industry to leadership roles in science communication and policy.
Career Exploration Opportunities
Biological Sciences Graduate Student Mentor / Alumni Dinner
This once-per-year event is sponsored by our Graduate Student Association and Alumni Relations. The event brings back several alumni from our doctoral program to meet and mentor current students. The event is planned as a dinner and networking event on campus.
Biotech Group at UCSD
The Biotech Group at UCSD aims to bridge the gap between industry and academia by creating a community for members to explore and prepare for career success in the life science industry, and facilitating opportunities for education, discussion and networking. biotechucsd@gmail.com
Career Services Center
The UCSD Career Services Center assists students in fulfilling their career goals through a variety of services and resources, job listings, on-campus recruiting, reference materials, and career consultants.
grAdvantage
A UC San Diego program aimed at preparing graduate students and post-doctoral scholars for a range of careers, from industry to academia. grAdvantage was developed with input from industry leaders in the San Diego Community and provides a suite of resources to help participants develop essential leadership, teamwork and communication skills to become successful leaders in their field.
Skill Development Opportunities
BioEASI
BioEASI (Bio Education and Art for Science Innovation) is a team of graduate students in the UCSD Division of Biological Sciences. The mission of BioEASI is to facilitate the interaction between scientists and the public through outreach, education and the arts to increase public interest in and support for basic scientific research, and to enhance the communication and creative thinking skills of scientists.
Preparing Future Faculty for Active, Engaged Teaching
The Teaching + Learning Commons’ Center for Engaged Teaching leads the promotion of continuous improvement in high quality teaching, learning, assessment, and research at UC San Diego. Graduate students can participate in the many workshops offered to faculty, instructors, graduate students, and postdocs each quarter.
The Teaching + Learning Commons offers programs specifically for graduate students as well:
Teaching + Learning at the College Level is a quarter-long workshop series aimed at graduate students and postdocs who already have experience as teaching assistants and are interested in making the leap from grading, running discussion sessions, or leading labs to being the instructor-of-record at UC San Diego and beyond.
Summer Graduate Teaching Scholars (SGTS) is a program providing excellent opportunities for graduate students who have advanced to candidacy to obtain mentored teaching experience. The program gives the student opportunities to practice their instructional skills at the university level in progressively more complicated environments, while preparing the materials one needs to develop a competitive teaching portfolio.
UC San Diego Extension
UC San Diego Extension offers a limited number of vouchers every quarter to graduate students for complimentary enrollment in courses they offer. The list of courses is available at the link above.