You’ll earn your Ph.D. helping to understand and solve environmental and global health problems using rigorous training in evolutionary biology and quantitative data analysis. And you’ll have opportunities to research areas including disease, antibiotic and pesticide resistance, food security, and ecosystem and species resilience to global change. Read more below on the strengths of our program.
Are you looking to pursue a scientific career helping to develop solutions to pressing environmental and global health problems? The Biological Data Science (BilDS) Program for Doctoral Students at the University of Vermont is designed to provide cutting-edge training, mentorship and hands-on internships for doctoral students who want to make a difference. Read more below on the strengths of our program.
Building the Foundation
You will develop firm foundations in evolutionary biology, data science, statistics, and modeling. The BilDS program is unique among other interdisciplinary, big-data programs across the country in our emphasis on evolutionary training, modeling for prediction, and culturally sensitive teamwork.
Diverse Course Offerings
You can choose from a broad selection of interdisciplinary graduate courses. BilDS Foundation courses are intensive, team-taught, case-based courses that ensure students have a strong understanding of core concepts in evolution, ecology, and epidemiology; exposure to contemporary, real-world topics where modeling and predicting system disturbances are important; and the knowledge-based to cultivate hypothesis development, experimental design, and teamwork skills at the beginning of their graduate training.
Training for the Real World
You will apply data-driven solutions to real-world problems in internships with non-academic institutions. BilDS trainees are encouraged to complete a 6-8 week, applied internship during their second year, selected from a diverse list of government, non-profit, industry, start-up, and international partners.
Building Better Science
You will grow through extensive professional development training that includes computational and communication skills, teamwork and cultural sensitivity training. This programming is grounded in the “six Cs" of effective mentoring: collaborative, cooperative, confidential, confidence-building, collegial and comforting.