Ph.D. in Bioengineering

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The Bioengineering Graduate Program provides students with educational and research experiences that integrate the sciences of biology and medicine with the practices and principles of engineering. For the MS and PhD programs, areas of focus include Bio-Micro and Nanotechnology, Bioimaging at Multi-Scale, Computational and Systems Bioengineering, Molecular, Cellular and Tissue Engineering, Research in BME Education and Synthetic Bioengineering. In addition to Bioengineering faculty, the Department of Bioengineering has more than 50 affiliate faculty that students may work with.

The required coursework is designed to ground students in the fundamentals of bioengineering, while also allowing flexibility based on students’ individual academic backgrounds and research interests. In addition to classes, graduate students are required to attend seminars presented by bioengineering researchers from around the world.

Degree Requirements

Entering with an approved bachelor’s degree only (Stage I) – 96 total credit hours

  • BIOE 500 Graduate Seminar (4 hours)
    BIOE 502 Bioengineering Professionalism (2 hours)
    Fundamental Electives- one in each of the categories below  (12 hours)
    • Statistics and Data Science
    • Engineering Math
    • Life Sciences
  • Technical Electives (12 hours)
  • BIOE 599 Thesis Research (66 hours)


Entering with approved bachelor’s  and master’s degrees (Stage II) – 64 total credit hours

  • BIOE 500 Graduate Seminar (2 hours)
  • BIOE 502 Bioengineering Professionalism (2 hours)
  • Technical Electives (8 hours)
  • BIOE 599 Thesis Research (52 hours)

All PhD students must successfully pass the Qualifying exam, Preliminary exam, Final Defense and deposit a dissertation. Additionally, students must have a minimum 3.0 GPA.

Ph.D. Timeline

 YEAR 1
  • Fundamental coursework & seminars
  • Begin doctoral research
 YEAR 2
  • Finish coursework (technical electives)
  • Continue doctoral research
 YEARS 3-4
  • Finish coursework (technical electives)
  • Continue doctoral research
  • Preliminary exam
 YEAR 5
  • Complete doctoral thesis research
  • Defend and deposit thesis

Ph.D. in BioE Contacts

KARIN READEL 
Assistant Director, Graduate Programs

Bioengineering professor Wawrzyniec L. Dobrucki

PROF. WAWRZYNIEC DOBRUCKI
Associate Head of Graduate Programs

Interested in our Ph.D. Program? Connect with us to find out more.

Email: bioe-gradprograms@illinois.edu
Phone: (217) 300-8066
1102 Everitt Laboratory, M/C 278
1406 W. Green St.
Urbana, IL 61801

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