QCB
PhD PROGRAM
We prepare students to develop or innovatively apply novel, effective, and efficient computational methods capable of answering complex problems through a rigorous curriculum grounded in a focus on statistics, algorithms, and biology.
Why Choose Our P.h.D. Program?
Ph.D. QUICK LINKS
A Ph.D. in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics from the Dornsife College of Letter, Arts and Sciences at USC offers its students a truly unique graduate experience:
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A long history in Computational Biology training
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A distinguished body of Alumni
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A strong focus in methodological development
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Close ties with experimental biology
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A distinguished list of faculty
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A strong research program
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Our QCB Department is an academic unit, and not a virtual program
Our Philosophy: A Strong Focus in Method Development and Applications
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We prepare students to be able to develop and innovatively apply novel, effective, and efficient computational methods to address the challenges arisen from emerging data.
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We train our students to have a solid foundation of statistics, algorithms, and biology with a rigorous curriculum, and build their ability to analyze data and formulate problems by research projects.
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This training prepares our students for a variety of careers
Join A Collaborative Working Environment
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We are the PhD Program of USC's Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology, located in two modern research buildings shared with wet-lab experimental biologists, as well as chemists, physicists, and engineers.
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We have close collaborations with faculty at the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, the Keck School of Medicine, the Viterbi School of Engineering, and other Schools across the university.
An Independent Academic Department, Not A Virtual Program
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Most Computational Biology training programs in the world collect faculties from different departments, and build a virtual program. In contrast all faculty in our program belong to the same academic unit, physically located in the same two buildings (we also have several, affiliated faculty from other departments).
With an exceptionally strong research program, our graduate students over the past decade have published multiple significant research papers, including articles in Science, Cell, Nature, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Methods, PNAS, and Genome Research.
A World Class Faculty
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Our Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology currently has 15 tenured and tenure track, 2 teaching and 2 Emeritus core faculty members. We also have 20 joint faculty members from the Dornsife College of Letter, Arts and Sciences, the Viterbi School of Engineering and the Keck School of Medicine, and other USC Schools.
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Our faculty members have won many prestigious awards: The QCB faculty include a Nobel Laureate, four members of the US National Academy of Sciences, one member of the US National Academy of Engineering, two fellows of the Royal Society, one member of the French Academy of Sciences, one member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and five AAAS Fellows.
A Distinguished Body of Alumni
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Our program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics is the world’s oldest training program in Computational Biology. In 2022 we have celebrated 40 years of Computational Biology at USC with the USC Computational Biology Symposium 2022. (link conference website here) At this conference, the we also celebrated the new QCB Department and Professor Michael Waterman’s 80th birthday.
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Over the past 40 years, many prominent and leading computational biologists have been trained at USC. A list of recent graduates of our program is available HERE. Become part of our QCB family!