Welcome
Annual Western NY MD/PhD conference
This year's Annual Western New York MD/PhD conference was held on Saturday, May 3rd, 2008. For the first time, the conference contained an outreach component entitled Transforming Tomorrow's Thinkers (T3) that allowed undergraduates, high school students, parents, educators, and counselors to learn about physician-scientist careers. more info...
The MD/PhD program provides training for some of the most demanding and rewarding careers available today. Typical careers combine the excitement of discovery with the satisfaction of helping people. Success in such careers requires many talents and considerable commitment. Thus, your choice of university for preparation is a major decision.
At Rochester, we develop talent through interactive research, teaching, patient care, and individual mentoring. The University is a medium sized, private research university with an endowment of about a billion dollars. There are roughly 4,000 undergraduate, 2,000 graduate, and 400 medical students. Research and training occurs under the single roof
of the Medical Center and immediately adjacent departments of the College. Clinical aspects of medicine are intertwined with coursework and research from the beginning to the end in Rochester's MD/PhD Curriculum. Many research projects are collaborations between scientists and physicians in different departments, thus facilitating the interdisciplinary approach necessary to solve complex problems in medicine. Rochester's size and physical layout allows an interactive, cooperative, informal, and supportive atmosphere that optimizes both intellectual and personal growth.
Susan Lee
One of the main deciding factors in my decision to attend U of R was the flexibility of the program. U of R is one of the few programs that allow a PhD in any field, that is willing to design a personalized curriculum, and allows for cross-departmental dissertation projects.
Program students take advantage of outstanding opportunities in a wide range of areas, reflecting an appreciation that research aimed at understanding human health and disease takes many forms. Rochester is committed to providing the very best environment for research. For example, over $500 million has been invested in the past 7 years to construct and populate two new research buildings, effectively increasing research opportunities by 50%. New training programs in Epidemiology and Cardiovascular Medicine have been established. To keep pace with these changes, the University expanded its MD/PhD program, increasing the number of new trainees from 2 or 3 per year in 1999 to 8 in 2004. The National Institutes of Health has consistently recognized Rochester as an outstanding place for MD/PhD training: we are entering our 32nd year as an MSTP funded institute.
Developing the skills and expertise required to become a physician-scientist requires a great deal of time and effort. The thrill of discovery and the satisfaction of bringing science and medicine together, however, provide rewards that are matched by few endeavors. Rochester's program and environment are designed to maximize this synergism. We invite you to consider our institute for your combined degree training.
M. Kerry O'Banion, MD, PhDDoug H. Turner, PhD
Co-Directors, MD/PhD Program
