Certificate Requirements

PEB certificate requirements have been carefully meshed with those of the home departments to avoid substantially increasing the course load for PEB students. Courses may be counted towards both the certificate and the home department requirements. Progress through the PEB certificate requirements can be tracked via this worksheet.

Required Coursework

This course involves a series of modules, co-taught by faculty, in which students from different academic backgrounds and research skills collaborate on projects at the interface of physics, engineering, and biology. The modules cover a broad range of PEB research areas and skills. The course starts with an introduction to MATLAB, which is used throughout the course for analysis, simulations, and modeling.

This class is intended to introduce students to integrated approaches to research. Each week, the first of two sessions is student-led, while the second session is led by faculty with complementary expertise and discusses papers that use different approaches to the same topic (for example, physical and biological or experiment and theory). 


 

The course has two aims: (1) to introduce students to the physics of biological systems and (2) to introduce students to the basics of scientific computing. The course focuses on studies of a broad range of biophysical phenomena including diffusion, polymer statistics, protein folding, macromolecular crowding, cell motion, and tissue development using computational tools and methods. Intensive tutorials are provided for MATLAB including basic syntax, arrays, for-loops, conditional statements, functions, plotting, and importing and exporting data.

*You may fulfill your PEB requirements with a course not listed above with permission from PEB leadership.

This course covers advanced topics in computational biology. How do cells compute, how do they count and tell time, how do they oscillate and generate spatial patterns? Topics include time-dependent dynamics in regulatory, signal-transduction, and neuronal networks; fluctuations, growth, and form; mechanics of cell shape and motion; spatially heterogeneous processes; diffusion. This year, the course spends roughly half its time on mechanical systems at the cellular and tissue level, and half on models of neurons and neural systems in computational neuroscience. 

*You may fulfill your PEB requirements with a course not listed above with permission from PEB leadership.

Optional Primer Courses

An intensive introduction to biological nomenclature, systems, processes, and techniques for graduate students with previous backgrounds in non-biological fields including physics, engineering, and computer science who wish to perform graduate research in the biological sciences.

This primer class is designed for students who have little or no background in biology. Many PEB students will not need to take this course.

  • The course offers an introduction to quantitative methods relevant to analysis and interpretation of biophysical and biochemical data. Topics covered include statistical testing, data presentation, and error analysis; introduction to dynamical systems; analysis of large datasets; and Fourier analysis in signal/image processing and macromolecular structural studies. The course also includes an introduction to basic programming skills and data analysis using MATLAB. Real data from research groups in MB&B are used for practice.

This primer class is designed for students who have little or no background in math or computation. Many PEB students will not need to take this course.

Required Professional Development Activities

Meet with PEB leadership in years 1 and 2 to check in on progress toward fulfilling all PEB requirements.

Present your PEB-related research in May of your second year during PEB Discussion Group 2nd Year Flash Talks.

Volunteer during at least one PEB outreach event (offered twice/year).

Attend at least 2 of the following professional development opportunities:

  • Present your PEB-related research during PEB discussion group
  • Present your PEB-related research at a non-Yale conference or meeting
  • Attend a PEB-hosted professional development event
  • Help organize a PEB outreach event or PEB Discussion Group
  • Invite and host an external seminar speaker at Yale to present on PEB-related research during the PEB
  • Distinguished Seminar Series
  • Attend an external workshop on a PEB-related topic
  • Meet with Yale alumni working in a PEB-related field that is of interest to you to learn about their career path
  • Have a career advising appointment with the Yale Office of Career Strategy

PEB students will receive their certificate after admission to candidacy in their home department.

If you intend to use PEB funding (including travel funding), the project described in your prospectus should be aligned with PEB.

Home Department Course Requirements