Training

Training Tomorrow's Genomics Scientists

Essential to the scientific and educational mission of the Museum and to the work of the ICG is the training of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Through such training, young scientists have opportunities to work with Museum curatorial staff and have access to the Museum's state-of-the-art laboratories, computational facilities, and collections while they gain expertise in genetic research. Currently, there are 40 graduate students and 15 postdoctoral fellows in laboratories in the Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics.

The Museum's training program will be greatly enhanced with the historic establishment in 2006 of its Richard Gilder Graduate School, which will grant Ph.D. degrees in comparative biology. This marks the first time that an American museum has been granted the authority to award its own Ph.D. degree. The Richard Gilder Graduate School is a significant extension of the Museum's longstanding role of training the next generation of scientists. The first class of students in the Richard Gilder Graduate School is scheduled to arrive in fall 2008.

In addition to the initial Ph.D. program in comparative biology, the Richard Gilder Graduate School will be an umbrella for all the Museum's postsecondary training programs in science, serving to solidify and invigorate the Museum's intellectual community including doctoral work in fields other than biology, undergraduate training programs, and postdoctoral fellowships.