Requirements for all students

First Year Advising
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Autumn Quarter: Faculty members are assigned to serve on a student's first year advising committee. This committee evaluates the student's background, recommends an academic program, and helps in choosing the eventual dissertation research advisor and dissertation advising committee. The advising committee is comprised of faculty members from the student's proposed area of specialization.

Meetings take place during orientation week, the first week of classes or at another mutually agreed upon time. Together they will establish a course of study, taking into consideration (1) area of specialization; (2) training in accessory areas such as language, math, physical sciences, and computer science; and (3) breadth in Biology. Students who have not chosen a specific area will need to work closely with their committee to plan for exploration of alternatives. The first year advising committee will also help students select and arrange lab rotations (if applicable) and advise students of their academic and administrative responsibilities. Students should bring the First Year Advising Committee Meeting form (1A) to their meeting and return the signed form to Student Services following the meeting, no later than the Monday following the study list deadline.

Spring Quarter: In spring quarter of the first year, the advising committee will meet again with the student to evaluate his or her progress. A signed First Year Evaluation Report form (1B) must be submitted to the Student Services Office by May 15 of the student’s first year in the Ph.D. program. The faculty will use the committee’s recommendations during their spring quarter review meeting. Once a student's continuation is approved, the committee is expected to help develop an academic plan for the second year and select a dissertation committee.

Ethics Course
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All students are required to take an Ethics course. This course should be taken in the first year of the program.

BIO 312: Ethical Issues in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology – required for Eco/Evo students. Offered Autumn quarter.

MED 255: Responsible Conduct of Research – required for Molecular, Cell, Developmental and Genetics, and Integrative/Organismal students. Offered all four quarters.

Teaching
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Regardless of the source of support, each Ph.D. student is required to teach:
• Cell/Mol: Two quarters
• I/O: Two quarters
• Eco/Evo: Three quarters

One quarter must be in the core lecture courses (BIO 41, 42, or 43), or undergraduate core labs (BIO 44X or 44Y). Summer teaching positions cannot be used to fulfill teaching requirements. Textbooks for courses are provided free of charge for teaching assistants. Please ask the instructor for a free desk copy; if one is not available, you can purchase any required texts – see student services staff.

The department requires teaching experience for two reasons. First, the department has practical needs for teaching assistance and must satisfy some of these needs with graduate teaching assistants (TAs). Second, the teaching experience is valuable for students who later choose to pursue academic careers where they will be expected to teach and develop courses.

Students should satisfy their teaching requirements within the first two years of the program. In order to secure a TA position, faculty should be contacted well in advance of the quarter a course is to be offered.

Teaching responsibilities should be clearly understood before a student accepts a teaching position. Typical teaching responsibilities include the following:
• Assist in the preparation and grading of exams, problem sets, etc.
• Hold regular office hours
• Assist in preparation and distribution of course handouts
• Attend lectures
• Provide student course feedback to instructor
• Initiate and plan discussion sections
• For lab courses: set up experiments, check equipment, and supervise clean-up

Grading papers and exams is a part of teaching assistant (TA) duties and is not considered to be supplementary work.

In order to fulfill their teaching requirements, students have their teaching supervisors complete the Teaching Requirement form (4). Students must deliver this completed form to the Student Services Office where it will be kept in their file.

Students who plan to TA for one of the core labs (BIO 44X or 44Y) are required to attend a training course, BIO 291, the preceding quarter. Registering for BIO 291 to obtain units is optional. If interested please contact Dr. Shyamala Malladi at smalladi@stanford.edu.

Optional Teaching: Students who wish to do more teaching after they have fulfilled the requirement may ask to be considered, though faculty must give first priority to students who have not yet completed their requirements.

Pre-Doctoral Fellowship Applications
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All first and second year Ph.D. students who are eligible to apply for a National Science Foundation fellowship are required to do so. If a student already has an outside fellowship, s/he is not required to apply for the NSF. Typically the application deadline is early November. Please see the NSF website for deadlines: https://www.fastlane-beta.nsf.gov/grfp/Login.do

All students are encouraged to apply for any/all fellowships for which they are eligible. Students are encouraged to consult their faculty advisors when preparing fellowship applications.

Laboratory Safety Training
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All Biology Lab personnel are required, under regulations from various governmental agencies, to be trained in laboratory safety pertaining to their lab. During orientation, each new graduate student is required to attend the Health and Safety Training Session. Prior to working in the lab, new students are required to complete a number of SU EH&S safety training, online courses and any specialized classroom training that is required for the lab he or she will be entering. The Dept. Safety Officer will give a general safety overview and provide a Safety Training Certificate form, outlining the required and suggested courses for each student.

Required courses may include but are not limited to some of the following:
• General Safety & Emergency Preparedness
• Chemical Safety for Labs
• Biosafety
• Ergonomics
• Radiation Safety
• Laser Safety
• Compressed Gas Safety
• DOT: Shipping Biological Goods or Dry Ice

In most labs, the Lab Safety Coordinator is responsible to see that every person entering the laboratory has completed the safety training. In labs with no Lab Safety Coordinator, the Principal Investigator (P.I.) is responsible for health and safety training.

Students must complete their training, have the Safety Training Certificate form signed by their P.I., and return the form to the Safety Officer, in the main office in Gilbert Bldg., Rm. 109. After hours access to the Biology buildings, WILL BE REVOKED if the completed form is not returned.

Every laboratory has a Stanford Safety Manual, which describes the Health and Safety program at Stanford, and the Emergency Response Plan for the department. Reference materials can be found on the EH&S website, with a list of training videos and journals. There are CD-ROMs containing Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) and the Hazardous Waste Training Program available in the Falconer Biology Library.

Additional training is required when students begin to use protocols involving radioactivity and or animals. Students who may be using radioisotopes must also attend the University radiation safety course and pass the radiation safety examination. Arrangements to take this class are made through the Health Physics Division of the Department of Environmental Health and Safety. Students involved with animals may be required to take additional veterinary training.

Dissertation Proposal
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During the second year, each student must pass a two-part qualifying exam. The student must prepare and defend a dissertation proposal that outlines the student’s projected dissertation research.

1. Dissertation Proposal
2. Dissertation Proposal Defense

The dissertation proposal is submitted to the Dissertation Proposal Committee, and an oral examination is held.
CELL/MOL and I/O: The student’s advisor is present (but not as a voting member) at the oral examination, which is administered by the other three members of the Dissertation Proposal Committee (ideally two from the department and one from an outside department to serve as examiners).
CELL/MOL: The Dissertation Proposal (paper) must be submitted to the Student Services Office no later than March 31 and the Dissertation Proposal form (6) and oral exam must be completed by May 1.
I/O: The Dissertation Proposal (paper) must be submitted to the Student Services Office no later than May 15 and the Dissertation Proposal form (6) and oral exam must be completed by June 15.
ECO/EVO: The dissertation proposal is evaluated by a committee of three faculty members in an oral presentation. The Dissertation Proposal paper must be submitted to the Student Services Office no later than May 15 and the Dissertation Proposal form (6) and oral exam must be completed by June 15.

Candidacy
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All students must advance to candidacy by the end of their second year. This is contingent upon satisfactory completion of course work, teaching, and the dissertation proposal. If a student does not meet the requirements for advancing to candidacy by the end of 2nd year, the student is subject to dismissal from the Ph.D. program.

Advising Meetings: 3rd Year and Beyond
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All students in their third and fourth years must meet with their Dissertation Committee in the spring quarter each year. Students must submit a completed Spring Quarter Progress Report (7B) no later than May 15th to the Student Services Office. For students in their fifth year and beyond, two advising meetings per year are required. The first meeting must be in the Autumn quarter and you will need to submit a completed Autumn Quarter Progress Report (7A) to Student Services by November 15th. The second meeting must be in Spring quarter and is due May 15th.

Final Oral Exam (Thesis Defense) and Dissertation Submission
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The conferral of the Ph.D. is dependent upon successful completion of an oral exam and dissertation submission, along with completion of all other departmental and university requirements. The oral exam is a public seminar followed by a closed session with the student’s Oral Examination Committee. At least one month before the oral exam, a complete final draft of the dissertation must be turned in to the student’s Oral Examination Committee. At least two weeks before the oral exam, the student should check in with the committee and incorporate any changes by the time of the exam. The exam cannot be formally scheduled or publicly announced until the student receives approval from the Committee. The student should, however, start scheduling a date and time with the committee earlier than that, to assure that everyone is available on the projected date. The dissertation presented at the defense is expected to be in the final form that will be submitted to the University barring any changes suggested by a student’s committee at the defense. University guidelines for dissertations are available online at: http://registrar.stanford.edu/pdf/docdissdir.pdf.