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courses
what to study to become a biophysicist Biophysics asks how macromolecules and their complexes do the work of biology. Its focus is mechanism, and it aims to predict the results of biological processes. As such, it is a quantitative science that depends heavily on mathematics, physics, and chemistry, and draws on computational methods as well. If your interest is in understanding how biology works on a molecular level, you should begin early in your college studies to prepare yourself for a career in biophysics. Of course, there are many ways to apply quantitative methods to biology, and the courses you choose will depend on where in the broad biophysics spectrum your interests fall. However, there are some generalities one can make. You should certainly take differential and integral calculus early in your studies. Courses in differential equations and systems analysis are recommended for those with an interest in quantitative approaches to complex biological systems. Depending on your undergraduate major, you might take more physics, more chemistry, or more mathematics and computational science. However, a basic course in calculus-based physics and courses in chemistry through organic and biochemistry are recommended. Non-physics majors should not shirk at least a one-semester course (two would be better) in physical chemistry. Students headed toward experimental biophysics should take courses in molecular and cellular biology. Students headed towards computational biophysics or structural bioinformatics obviously should take more physics and computer science, but a basic course in computational methods (basic program design, spread sheet usage) is recommended for all. Having said all this, it is important to stress that those who realize late in their college career that they were meant to search out biological mechanism need not give up on pursuing biophysics. Biophysics is inherently an interdisciplinary subject and thrives the fresh ideas and perspectives of people trained in many different disciplines. It is easiest to make the journey from quantitatively oriented traditional disciplines into biophysics, but biochemists and biologists can also make this journey if they are committed to it. The best thing to do is to contact the Director or Graduate Studies Director of the biophysics program in which you are interested to examine how to proceed.
Herman R. Branson Summer Course in Biophysics The course is co-sponsored by the Biophysical Society and the National Society of Black Physicists and aims to encourage African American, Hispanic American, Native American and other underrepresented minority students to consider careers in biophysics. Students must be American citizens or legal residents. The course is open to 12 juniors or seniors from various academic majors and backgrounds, including but not necessarily limited to physics, computer science, chemistry or biochemistry, biology, mathematics and engineering. However, two semesters of calculus-based introductory general physics are a prerequisite, as well as some background in biology and chemistry. We organize study groups to maximize the benefits from the different academic majors of the students, and perhaps the different approaches to biophysical problems.
Classroom lectures are
supplemented by laboratories, seminars and discussions that illustrate modern
research in a given topic and/or relate the lecture topic to issues of current
societal or biomedical interest. Seminars will be presented by leading
biophysicists, whose visits will be planned to coordinate with the lecture
schedule. Visits to local biophysics labs are also planned.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island Sound (New York) has offered specialized laboratory courses for many years. The summer Phage Course, for example, offered at Cold Spring Harbor by Max Delbrück and colleagues beginning in 1945, played an important role in the history of molecular biology in America. Some of these courses may have biophysical content. Visit their website for a full listing of available courses.
Marine Biological Laboratory The Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole on Cape Cod (Massachusetts) has offered specialized laboratory courses in biology for many years. Some of these courses, for example, those in biological microscopy, teach biophysical techniques. Visit their website for a full listing of available courses. Columbia University School of Continuing Education University of Arizona Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics General Biology Program for Teachers
Time-resolved Fluorescence Short Course The Center for Fluorescence Spectroscopy at the University of Maryland—Baltimore County (College Park, MD) offers a workshop on the theory and practice of time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy; this workshop has a very strong biophysical orientation. Visit their website for details about this course.
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