The graduate program in Biophysics was established in 1949, making it one of the first such programs in the world. For several decades, Biophysics has been a center at the University of Michigan for researchers excited about applying ideas, concepts, and techniques from the physical sciences to problems in molecular and cellular biology.
Biophysics is a natural meeting ground for people interested in interactions that transcend the traditional boundaries between disciplines. It is therefore the place for graduate students to learn the skills necessary for future careers in a world that increasingly values interdisciplinary, integrative and quantitative perspectives.
Our program encompasses a dozen core faculty members, most with joint appointments in other academic departments such as Chemistry, Physics, and Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. An additional 40+ affilated faculty with appointments throughout the University including the Medical School, College of Engineering and College of Pharmacy, make for an extremely broad interdepartmental graduate program. Students in Biophysics have the opportunity to experience cutting-edge research in an extremely wide range of areas including biomolecular structure and dynamics, single molecule microscopy, spectroscopy and its applications, neurobiophysics, computational biology and bioinformatics, membrane biophysics, enzymology as well as the exciting research initiatives led by the Single Molecule Analysis in Real-Time (SMART) Center.
All graduate students in the Biophysics program are offered a funding package for up to five years of support. The financial package includes stipend, tuition remission and health insurance. For students in their first year, funding is provided by a first-year fellowship. The four subsequent years are funded through a combination of fellowship, teaching or research assistantships.
Biophysics at Michigan combines the personal attention of a small graduate program with the resources and opportunities of one of the nation's largest and best funded research universities.
