Biological Sciences (PhD)

Doctor of Philosophy in Biological Sciences

Program Website: Biological Sciences

Field(s) of Specialization

• Cell and Molecular Biology
• Ecology and Evolution
• Neurobiology and Physiology
• Plant Sciences and Oenology and Viticulture

Faculty and Administration

For a listing of program faculty and administrative contacts, please visit the program directory.

Program Description

The department offers research-based graduate programs leading to MSc and PhD degrees in Biological Sciences in the following fields: Cell and Molecular Biology; Ecology and Evolution; Neurobiology and Physiology; Plant Sciences, Oenology and Viticulture.

Facilities

The department is well equipped with state-of-the-art laboratory equipment for all fields of biology research. A greenhouse, plant growth chamber, a farm, and facilities for the growth and maintenance of terrestrial and aquatic animals are available to students. Also available are facilities for culture of animal, yeast and bacterial cells; a walk-in plant tissue culture room and associated tissue culture facility; and laminar flow tanks for aquatic animal research. The department’s specialized equipment holdings include spectrophotometers, a fluorescence spectrometer; a phosphorimager scanner; a scanning electron microscope; fluorescence microscopes and state of the art computer imaging systems; a confocal microscope; a laser capture microscope, a two-photon laser scanning microscope; computer controlled electrophysiological research stations for stimulation and recording of muscle, nerve and whole animal electrical activity; microplate readers; fluorescence imagers; real-time PCR machines; biophysical spectrometers for high sensitivity absorbance, linear dichroism, circular dichroism, photoacoustic and picosecond time-resolved fluorescence; and a parallel computing PC cluster for mathematical modeling of biological systems. Through the University, we also have free access to the state-of-the-art high performance computing facility at Compute Canada.

Associated with the Department of Biological Sciences, the Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI) is housed in Inniskillin Hall. The CCOVI research facilities include a biotechnology laboratory, viticulture laboratory, a state-of-the-art sensory evaluation laboratory, pilot winery and a 43,000 bottle wine cellar which includes the Canadian Wine Library.

Admission Requirements

Successful completion of a Master of Science degree, or equivalent in Biological Sciences with an overall average of not less than 80%.

• Alternatively, students who have successfully completed one year in the Brock Biological Sciences MSc program, normally including completion of all MSc course work with grades of at least 80% in each course, may apply to transfer to the PhD program following successful completion of the Biological Sciences pre-doctoral exam. Current guidelines for transferring from the MSc to the PhD program should be obtained from the Graduate Program Director.
• Agreement from a faculty member to supervise the student is required for admission to the program.
• For students who are required to provide proof of English Language Proficiency, a full listing of accepted English Language Proficiency tests is available on the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs English Language Proficiency webpage.
• The Graduate Committee will review applications and recommend admission for a limited number of candidates.
• Part-time study is not available.

Program Notes

• The thesis supervisor may not offer all the courses in a candidate’s program.
• All courses in which the student is enrolled must be approved by the student’s supervisory committee. When appropriate and with permission of the supervisory committee, courses offered outside the Department of Biological Sciences may be taken to fulfill course requirements.
• Additional credits may be required of candidates with insufficient preparation in the area of research specialization.

Continued enrolment in the Doctor of Philosophy program requires the successful completion of a pre-doctoral examination.

• The pre-doctoral examination will comprise an oral exam on the student’s written examination proposal, completed no later than the sixth term of study (third or fourth term is recommended).
• The Pre-doctoral Examining Committee shall consist of the student’s supervisory committee plus two faculty members from the Department of Biological Sciences, one of whom shall be the Departmental Chair or the Chair’s Representative.
• The pre-doctoral examination has three possible outcomes for students registered in the PhD program: Pass (students may continue in the program), Probation (students will be required to retry the pre-doctoral exam within a specific time frame, not to exceed 3 months), Fail (students will be required to withdraw from the program immediately). Students on probation will be allowed to retry the examination only once.
• The pre-doctoral examination has two possible outcomes for MSc students who wish to transfer to the PhD: Pass (students may transfer to the PhD program), Fail (students will be allowed to submit and defend an MSc thesis).