Elective courses, chosen from the Biology Department course offerings or from other departments, are taken to meet credit requirements and to complement the student’s research work and field of specialty. After completion of 15 credits of coursework, the student sits for a comprehensive exam to determine whether he/she has acquired the necessary background to successfully complete the doctoral program.

For successful graduation the student must meet the requirements set forth in the catalogue and:
1. complete and successfully defend his/her dissertation.
2. acquire teaching experience (theory or lab) equivalent to a minimum of a 3 credit
    course
3. present yearly, during candidacy, his/her research progress to the Department
4. publish a research paper in an international peer-reviewed journal

Teaching assistantship covering tuition fees and stipends are awarded to PhD students upon admission to the program. The assistantship entitles the student to a tuition waiver and to a stipend that covers 12 months per academic year at $800 per month with an annual increase of 2% thereafter. In return, students are expected to help in teaching undergraduate labs, with recitations of introductory courses and in proctoring and correcting exams.

The Biology Department has 16 Faculty members: 3 instructors, 2 lecturers, 4 assistant professors, 2 associate professors and 5 full-professors. The Faculty have diverse fields of specialization covering the areas of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Physiology, Immunology, among others. Research areas of strength include nucleic acids, cell differentiation, cancer biology, cell cycle regulation, membrane biology, signal transduction and transport, and bacterial genetics and resistance.

Facilities available include departmental and AUB facilities. The former are comprised of 3 well-equipped research labs in addition to 7 research labs as annexes to faculty offices, cell culture rooms, radioactivity rooms, and animal room facilities.  The labs include major equipment used in Cell and Molecular Biology research such as a fully equipped Cell Culture Facility, ELISA readers, fraction collector, PCR machine, and electrophoresis, among others. AUB facilities include the AUB Medical Core Lab (http://staff.aub.edu.lb/~webmedic/CoreLabs.htm) and the Central Research Science Laboratory (http://staff.aub.edu.lb/~webcrsl/) with state-of-the-art-equipment used in Cell and Molecular Biology research. In addition, departmental and University-wide computer and networking facilities (http://www.aub.edu.lb/cns/) are available for the Program.

For more information, visit the Biology Department website.

Students will have access to the University Libraries print and virtual collections. Jafet Library, the main library, is centrally located on campus, and has branch libraries in engineering, architecture, the pure and agricultural sciences.
Its holdings include over 600,000 volumes and a print journal collection of around 2500 titles and approximately 22,000 titles within electronic databases.

Of the above, more than 10,000 volumes and 125 print serials are in biology.
The collection covers topics such as cell anatomy, cell biophysics, cytoplasms, cell movement, cytogenetics, metabolism, gene expression, genetic recombination and RNA.
Saab Medical Library supplements the collections available in the University Libraries.
Of the virtual resources, Libraries subscribe to the following databases, among others: BIOSIS, Entomology abstracts, Genetics abstracts, and SciFinder scholar, as well as to the eBook package: Topics in Current Genetics.
Added to the above are four major multidisciplinary online journal packages: Elsevier Science Direct, Blackwell Synergy, Kluwer Online Package, and Springer Link.

The services of the University Libraries include an active program of enrichment to support PhD programs, research assistance offered in classes and on an individual basis and Document Delivery Services for material not available in the collections.

http://staff.aub.edu.lb/~webjafet/