University System of Georgia Format for New Program Proposal
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The faculty listed above are sufficient in number for directing the students in the Program. In addition to the above list of core and associate members of the Institute, the following faculty have declared their intention to be affiliate members: Lauren Adamson (Professor, Psychology) Page Anderson (Assistant Professor, Psychology) Vadym Apalkov (Assistant Professor, Physics) Andrew Clancy (Senior Lecturer, Biology) Nikolaus Dietz (Associate Professor, Physics) William Edmundson (Professor, Law and Philosophy) Chris Goode (Lecturer, Psychology) Gary Hastings (Associate Professor, Physics) Xiaolin Hu (Assistant Professor, Computer Sci) Heather Kleider (Assistant Professor, Psychology) Scott Owen (Professor Emeritus, Computer Sci) George Rainbolt (Professor, Philosophy) Sebastian Rand (Assistant Professor, Philosophy) Mary Ann Romski (Professor, Psychology) Rose Sevcik (Professor, Psychology) Michael Weeks (Associate Professor, Computer Sci)
If it will be necessary to add faculty in order to begin the program, give the desired qualifications of the persons to be added, with a timetable for adding new faculty and plan for funding new positions. One or two new faculty will be added within the next two years, funded by the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience or Brains and Behavior Area of Focus, but these additions are not necessary to begin the program. Outstanding programs of this nature in other institutions. List three outstanding programs of this nature in the country, giving location name, and telephone number of official responsible for each program. Indicate features that make these programs stand out. When available, append descriptive literature of the outstanding program. Indicate what aspects of these outstanding programs, if any, will be included in your program. 1) Cornell University, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior: http://www.nbb.cornell.edu/neurobio/Field/gradfield2.html Cornell’s Ph.D. program in Neurobiology and Behavior (NB&B) integrates the study of neurobiology with behavior at all levels of analysis. Approaches range from the study of ion channels through neural networks all the way to the behavior of animal societies. Faculty come from a broad variety of disciplines including Psychology, Biomedical Engineering, Applied Physics, Entomology, Biomedical Sciences, Molecular Medicine, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Neurobiology and Behavior. Other outstanding features include graduate training grants, exceptional students, individually-tailored courses of study, and opportunities for students to learn from experts in both seminar and hands-on lab formats. David L. Deitcher, Director of Graduate Studies W363 Seeley Mudd Hall Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853-2702 607 254-4340 dld14@cornell.edu 2) Michigan State University, Dept of Psychology, Graduate Program in Neuroscience: http://neuroscience.msu.edu/program.html The Neuroscience Ph.D. program at MSU is an interdisciplinary program with over 45 participating faculty from eight different departments. This program is known for having some of the top neuroendocrinologists and behavioral neuroscientists in the country. The program highlights four focus areas: cellular/molecular, imaging/physiology, behavior/integrative biology, and development/evolution. A broad-based curriculum is complemented by research training in specialized areas of neuroscience. The program is very active and offers weekly research seminars, weekly research forums for graduate students to present their work, and an annual research retreat. The combination of classroom and laboratory training, plus the vast opportunities for professional interactions at Michigan State University, furnish students with an excellent understanding of the richness and diversity of approaches to the study of the nervous system, and equip them for successful careers in either the public or private sector. Our program regularly competes for the same pool of graduate students, but the fact that MSU offers a PhD in Neuroscience often sways students towards their program.
The NACS Graduate Program offers world-class interdisciplinary training in several broad areas including systems neuroscience, molecular and cellular neuroscience, computational and cognitive neuroscience, and cognitive science. Within and across these areas, they have faculty with internationally renowned research programs in vision, audition, sensorimotor integration, synaptic plasticity, language and communication, learning, memory and decision making, and neuromorphic engineering. These research programs are housed in over 14 different departments, which participate in the NACS Graduate Program in College Park. Through their partnerships with the National Institutes of Health and Children's National Medical Center, NACS graduate students may also receive research training in laboratories of adjunct faculty at neighboring institutions. Amanda Woodward, Professor, Graduate Director Department of Psychology 2147B Biology-Psychology Building University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742 301-405-8910 awoodward@psyc.umd.edu Inventory of pertinent library resources. Indicate--in numbers of volumes and periodicals--available library resources (including basic reference, bibliographic, and monographic works as well as major journal and serial sets; include any on-line resources) which are pertinent to the proposed program. How do library resources compare to those at institutions listed in section 6? What additional library support must be added to support the proposed program, and what is the plan for acquiring this support? The newly-renovated Georgia State University Library contains over 1.4 million volumes, including 7,989 active serials, and almost 22,000 media materials. The library has access to 276 electronic periodical and resource indices (many with full text), almost 14,000 electronic journals with full text, and about 30,000 electronic books. Additionally, the library is a Federal Document Depository and holds more than 820,000 government documents with electronic access to many additional titles. (Source: 2006/2007 Library Annual Report) The GSU Library has been very supportive of the neurosciences. (See http://www.library.gsu.edu/research/liaison.asp?ldID=115&guideID=0.) We currently have full-text electronic access to over 330 neuroscience-related journals and there are over 200 print journals on site. Important databases available include PubMed, Web of Science, PsychInfo, PsycEXTRA, Biological Abstracts, Animal Behavior Abstracts, CSA Neurosciences Abstracts, ERIC, ScienceDirect. This compares very favorably with competing programs in the Southeast and nationally (see chart in Appendix V).
Describe the desired qualifications of the students who will be recruited and admitted to the proposed program, including ethnic populations that will be targeted. We will seek domestic and foreign students with documented laboratory experience and excellent academic credentials, of all ethnic, economic, and racial backgrounds. The neuroscience programs in the Biology and Psychology departments are already attracting excellent students, and we expect to attract even more highly qualified students under the auspices of the Neuroscience Institute. Indeed a major impetus for establishing the M.S./Ph.D. in Neuroscience is to improve recruiting efforts. As discussed under #13, GSU has had tremendous success in recruiting underrepresented minorities into the existing neurobiology and neuropsychology programs. Facilities Describe the facilities available for the proposed program. How do these facilities and equipment compare to those of excellent programs elsewhere? What new facilities and equipment are required, and what is the plan for acquiring these facilities and equipment? Faculty to be involved in the Program currently have labs spread across several research buildings, primarily Kell Hall and the Natural Sciences Building. Offices for most faculty are in Kell Hall or the Science Annex. Their laboratories are well-equipped and are supporting ongoing, funded reseach programs. Faculty who plan primary appointments in the Neuroscience Institute will move to new facilities currently under construction. It is expected that access to facilities and equipment will at least continue at current levels and will expand in the future as resources become available. Currently there are facilities and equipment for genomics and proteomics, imaging and confocal microscopy, electron microscopy, molecular biology, neurosurgery, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neuropharmacology, neuroendocrinology, behavioral analysis and MRI. The faculty within the Neuroscience Institute will elect a Committee on Research and Facilities (three members, two core and one associate) to oversee Neuroscience Institute research and core facilities activities. The chair of this committee will supervise staff associated with the facilities, coordinate activities in these spaces and be responsible for upkeep and maintenance of equipment in shared and core facilities. The committee chair will oversee revenue accounts associated with the use of core facilities. The committee chair will serve as a liaison to core facilities in other units that are frequently used by Neuroscience Institute faculty. The committee chair will ensure that research in the Neuroscience Institute is performed according to Federal and State guidelines and regulations. The committee may appoint subcommittees (which may include faculty not on the committee) if its workload makes this necessary. Administration Describe how the proposed program will be administered within the structure of the institution. The PhD in Neuroscience will be administered by the Director of Graduate Studies in the Neuroscience Institute. The Director of Graduate Studies, appointed from the core faculty, oversees the graduate program and serves on the Graduate Council of the College of Arts and Sciences. The faculty will elect a Graduate Committee (three members, two core and one associate) that will work with the DGS on graduate issues. The Neuroscience Institute faculty will elect a Committee for Interdisciplinary Activities to oversee Neuroscience Institute interdisciplinary activities including degree programs and formulate policy proposals to bring to the Executive Committee. It will be composed of three core and four associate faculty. One of the associate members will be selected to be chair by the Director in consultation with the Executive Committee. The Chair will cast a vote only to break ties. Assessment Indicate the measures that will be taken to assess the effectiveness of the program and the learning outcomes of students enrolled. Current Learning Outcome Assessment Standards in the Departments of Biology and Psychology will be used to assess students in the Neuroscience Ph.D. Program. These include (see Appendix IIIa (Biology) and IIIb (Psychology) for details): BIOLOGY:
II. Communication III. History, Nature, and Impact of the Discipline IV. Content in the Discipline PSYCHOLOGY: I. Expertise in Theory and Content II. Expertise in Research Methods III. Application of Psychological Principles in Professional Activities IV. Communication and Collaboration Skills V. Critical Thinking Skills VI. Personal Development VII. Information and Technology Literacy VIII. Ethics and Values IX. Sociocultural Awareness X. Career Planning and Development. Critical evaluations of students in the program will be conducted in the course of their qualifying exam, thesis proposal defense, and dissertation defense. All students are expected to publish their original data in peer-reviewed scientific journals. The rating of the journal will provide an additional assessment measure, although journals to be selected vary by subdiscipline. We will also use post-GSU employment as an additional way to assess the effectiveness of the program. [note this exactly duplicates #9 under Curriculum above, should there be a difference? Accreditation Where applicable, identify accrediting agencies and show how the program meets the criteria of these agencies. Append standards and criteria to the proposal. Provide evidence that the institution has notified SACS of its intent to apply for a change in degree level, if appropriate. There is no accreditation procedure for graduate degrees in Neuroscience. SACS will evaluate all graduate programs at GSU. The Association of Neuroscience Departments and Programs (ANDP) provided comparative data on different programs that we have used in designing our proposal. Affirmative Action impact Indicate what impact the implementation of the proposed program will have on the institution's desegregation and affirmative action programs. Include information relating to faculty, staff, administrators, and students in this section. The neuroscience programs in the Biology and Psychology departments have been extraordinarily successful in under-represented minority recruitment, in part due to the initiatives made possible through the NSF-funded Center for Behavioral Neuroscience. The nationally recognized CBN BRAIN program for undergraduates is held each year, bringing in 22 undergraduates from Atlanta institutions and across the nation for neuroscience research fellowships to gain hands-on research experience at GSU and other Atlanta universities and colleges while attending lectures and seminars on neuroscience topics and professional skills. Historically, >75% of the participants have been women and >60% underrepresented minorities. Through the CBN, GSU has established strong ties with the Historically Black Colleges and Universities in Atlanta. Career Days and Research Days at Spelman College, Morehouse College, and Clark Atlanta University are attended by neuroscience faculty and CBN staff to provide information about graduate school opportunities. In recognition of his work with these institutions, CBN Director and GSU neuroscience faculty member Dr. Elliott Albers was named Mentor of the Year by The Center for Biomedical and Behavioral Research at Spelman College in 2006. Several students from these institutions at the AUC have worked in GSU neuroscience labs and/or enrolled in neuroscience graduate programs. Efforts are underway by GSU CBN faculty members to establish closer ties with several funded undergraduate research enhancement programs at Spelman and Morehouse Colleges to provide laboratory placement for undergraduates from those programs as a way to enhance our recruitment efforts. These efforts will be facilitated by combining graduate neuroscience training at GSU into a single coherent Neuroscience M.S./Ph.D. program, thereby enhancing our current strong efforts to enroll under-represented minorities in graduate science training. Currently, as indicated by a survey of neuroscience doctoral students receiving CBN support, our combined neuroscience-oriented graduate programs have approximately double the proportion of under-represented minorities compared to the nationwide average across neuroscience-oriented degree programs (reported by the Association of Neuroscience Degree Programs) and they are also above the national average in women enrollees. Establishment of a neuroscience graduate degree at GSU will further enhance our ability to attract talented under-represented minority and women undergraduates into our program rather than to other universities out of state that have already established interdepartmental neuroscience graduate programs, as well as improve mentoring and networking by linking them together in a single program. In this way, establishment of a unified neuroscience M.S./Ph.D.program will have a dual role in enhancing the recruitment of under-represented minorities into GSU as graduate students, while also improving the training of science majors at the undergraduate level. Degree inscription Indicate the degree inscription which will be placed on the student's diploma upon her/his completion of this program of study. Be sure to include the CIP code for the program. The degrees given will be M.S. and Ph.D. in Neuroscience, CIP code 30.2401 Neuroscience. A program that focuses on the interdisciplinary scientific study of the molecular, structural, physiologic, cognitive, and behavioral aspects of the brain and nervous system. Includes instruction in molecular and cellular neuroscience, brain science, anatomy and physiology of the central nervous system, molecular and biochemical bases of information processing, behavioral neuroscience, biology of neuropsychiatric disorders, and applications to the clinical sciences and biomedical engineering. Fiscal and Enrollment Impact, and Estimated Budget. Complete the following pages to indicate the expected EFT and head count student enrollment, estimated expenditures, and projected revenues for the first three years of the program. Include both the redirection of existing resources and anticipated or requested new resources. Institutional commitment of funds should be consistent with the centrality and level of priority that are assigned to the program in the proposal. Second and third-year estimates should be in constant dollars--do not allow for inflationary adjustments or anticipated pay increases. Include a budget narrative that is descriptive of significant line items and the specific redirection of resources envisioned. Budget narrative The Budget is derived almost entirely from a redirection of existing resources. No new resources are required to start the Program. In what follows, we explain the significant line items and how we will redirect resources to fund the proposed Ph.D. program. We provide an explanation for each section. I. Enrollment projections A. Student Majors: Our projections of 5 M.S. and 40 Ph.D. students migrating from existing programs and 5 students entering GSU as M.S. students in the 1st year are based on data from Fall semester enrollments in the Biology and Psychology neuroscience-related concentrations during the last 3 years. In all cases, the number of M.S. degrees will be tightly linked to the number of Ph.D. students as the M.S./Ph.D. in Neuroscience will require Ph.D. students to earn their M.S. degree during their Program of Study. Calculations for future years include estimated completion dates for the M.S. of 3 years and the Ph.D. of 5 years, and a gradual shift of incoming students away from those recruited from other programs (primarily Biology, Psychology, Physics) at GSU to those recruited from outside the University. By the end of year 3, we anticipate having 65 Neuroscience graduate students that will be mentored by 14 core Neuroscience Institute faculty and 41 associate faculty. Based on current faculty-to-student ratios in neuroscience laboratories at GSU, we anticipate an average of 3 students per core faculty member with the balance of students being mentored by associate faculty. B. Credit Hours: Each student will take at least 36 credit hours per year; however, those fully supported by assistantships in the department will register for 25 hours each semester. Fifty fully-supported students in the first year will generate 3750 graduate credit hours; 52 students in the second year will generate 3900 graduate hours; and, 65 students in the third year will generate 4875 graduate hours. Students may accumulate more than 90 credit hours in their programs (the minimum amount of credit hours required to complete the degree) because it is common for a student to take more research hours than the minimum requirement. Accordingly, a four to six year time-to-degree time frame for full time students is reasonable. C. Degrees Awarded: It is anticipated that some students will complete the M.S./Ph.D. program before the end of the third year. Most of our students at the inception of the Program will come from existing doctoral programs (primarily Biology and Psychology) and some will have completed most of their Program of Study in their previous department before transferring to the M.S./Ph.D. in Neuroscience. FY 10__ FY 11__ FY 12_ 1st Year 2nd Year 3rd Year I. ENROLLMENT PROJECTIONS (indicate basis for projections in narrative) A. Student majors (Note that students will earn an M.S. prior to their Ph.D.degree.) 1. Shifted from other programs Ph.D. ____45_ ____23 _____ 10___ 2. New to institution Ph.D. ____5___ ___29___ ___55___ Total Majors Ph.D. ____50_ ____52 ________65__ B. Course sections satisfying program requirements 1. Previously existing ___ 48_ __48__ __48__[This is the # of courses listed in our curriculum. I’ve now omitted the research courses ascribed to each of the 60-odd faculty] 2. New ____ ___ _____ _______ Total Program Course Sections1 __48_ __48__ __48__ C. Credit Hours generated by those courses [assumed each student taking avg 18 credits/sem = 54/yr per Nick Huot’s data, or should we use the 25 credits/sem numbers?] 1. Existing enrollments _2430__ _1242__ _540__ 2. New enrollments __270__ _1566__ _ 2970 Total Credit Hours _ 2700__ _2808__ _3510__ D. Degrees awarded M.S.2 16 17 22 Ph.D.3 ___10_ _ 12___ 14__ (yr 2) (yr 3) (yr 4)
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