Our Neighborhoods Within The City
The BBS program encompasses a network of research communities that include both basic science departments and interdepartmental programs at Harvard Medical School. We often compare these communities to neighborhoods within a larger city. Each one offers a tight-knit setting where faculty members and trainees with shared interests collaborate closely to advance research in their areas and engage in enriching training opportunities. Through this structure, BBS offers both the extensive range of research labs afforded by its scale and the sense of community typically found in smaller, specialized departmental programs. Below, you’ll find descriptions and links to learn more about these communities and the activities they organize to foster collaborative, stimulating, and supportive environments for conducting your thesis research. Please note that joining one of these communities is not required for admission.
BBS Supporting Departments
These departments serve as academic homes that provide the faculty, laboratories, and resources that make the program possible, and they also share in the governance of BBS by shaping its curriculum, policies, and academic standards. BBS is an umbrella program rather than a standalone department, and the supporting departments form the foundational communities in which BBS students are trained, mentored, and guided throughout their doctoral studies.
Harvard Integrated Life Sciences Alliance
BBS is a member of the Harvard Integrated Life Sciences (HILS) alliance. The HILS alliance is composed of 13 PhD programs of study across three Harvard faculties—Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, and Harvard Medical School. Being a HILS student provides academic and research flexibility, including options to take courses, do laboratory rotations, and even choose a dissertation advisor from across the HILS PhD programs, subject to specific program requirements and lab availability.
HILS-Wide Certificate Programs
These programs allow students to become a member of more specialized communities that come together through shared intellectual interests. The rigor and commitment of these concentrations
vary considerably, from no formal requirements whatsoever to an additional application process with course requirements that yield a certificate. Students may join one or more concentrations or none at all. Open to all HILS students.
HILS-Wide Enrichment Programs
Provides curriculum and activities fostering a broad and deep understanding of genetic and genomic research. Membership in the Program in Genetics and Genomics (PGG) is open to all Harvard HILS students. There is no formal application process for admittance. Any interested student should email the Program Director, Scott Kennedy, kennedy[at]genetics.med.harvard.edu. More information here.