Harvard Integrated Life Sciences (HILS)
http://www.gsas.harvard.edu/hils/index.html/

About HILS

In the 21st century, groundbreaking research and discovery in the life sciences are more interdisciplinary than ever. Harvard created the Integrated Life Sciences (HILS) Graduate Program in 2004 to address the reality that collaboration across disciplines is at the heart of current research in the life sciences and that subject areas no longer are confined within disciplinary boundaries.

HILS integrates 11 graduate programs across four Harvard faculties: the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Dental School, the Medical School, and the School of Public Health. This new structure allows the examination of emerging trends in the life sciences, including the need for new degree programs. For example, HILS has introduced two new interdisciplinary programs, Chemical Biology and Systems Biology, in the past year. The first student cohorts in these programs will begin study in the Fall of 2005.

How Does HILS Work?

Simply put, HILS exists to enable the best and most appropriate training for each student, and to encourage flexibility in their education and training.

Individual programs within the HILS have their own admissions, curriculum, and advising processes. Students are admitted to only a single program. After enrollment, students will normally continue to be affiliated with the program to which they are admitted (their "home program"). The home program governs their curriculum requirements (accommodating individual interests as much as possible), the preliminary qualifying examination, teaching requirements (if applicable), and their supervision and advising during the thesis period. The Home Program will also determine the title of their degree.

In those programs where students are expected to do rotations, students will arrange initial rotations within their own program; rotations in other programs in HILS can be arranged following consultation with the student's home program.

If a student chooses and is accepted by a thesis advisor in another HILS program, the two programs work together to ensure good oversight and advice, which may include a change in home program.

HILS Programs of Study

Academic areas represent the depth and breadth of current thinking in the life sciences. Each HILS program provides research opportunities in basic life sciences. Please visit each program's Website for details on these opportunities.

HILS supports programs leading to the PhD in:

• Biological and Biomedical Sciences -
  (an umbrella program that covers the disciplines of Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology, Cell Biology, Genetics, Microbiology & Molecular Genetics, and Pathology)
• Biological Sciences in Dental Medicine
• Biological Sciences in Public Health
• Biophysics
• Chemical Biology
• Immunology
• Molecular and Cellular Biology
• Neuroscience
• Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
• Systems Biology
• Virology

HILS Administrative Organization

The HILS Coordinating Committee is composed of life sciences scholars across several Harvard faculties. The HILS Executive Committee is charged with overall governance of the program. Its chair is Christopher T. Walsh, the Hamilton Kuhn Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School.

In addition, Assistant Dean John McNally coordinates the day-to-day administrative activities of the HILS initiative in collaboration with his Graduate School of Arts and Sciences colleagues, the 11 HILS member programs, the Division of Medical Sciences administrative staff, and the HILS Faculty Chair.

For more information about HILS, please consult the HILS website at http://www.gsas.harvard.edu/hils/,
or contact John McNally (jmcnally@fas.harvard.edu, 617-495-0616).