Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Science with an Emphasis in Pharmacoengineering

If you are interested in the pharmacoengineering curriculum, you can apply through one of the following programs:

• The Molecular Pharmaceutics Ph.D. program at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy
  • Contacts: Sam Lai, Ph.D. (lai@unc.edu); Phil Smith, Ph.D. (pcs@email.unc.edu)
• The BME Graduate Program
  • Contacts: Paul Dayton, Ph.D. (padaton@email.unc.edu); Shawn Gomez, Ph.D. (smgomez@unc.edu)

Note: Prospective students can apply to this program through either the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy or the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering. Upon completing the program, they will receive a Ph.D. from whichever program they applied to.

• Admissions
• Tuition and Financial Aid (teaching and research assistantships available to graduate students in the School of Pharmacy provide a stipend of $27,500)

• Minimum of 24 credits of coursework including elective courses, but excluding 1 credit for seminar.
• Participate in weekly seminar each semester. Students in their 3rd year have the opportunity to give a seminar each year. The final defense fulfills this requirement in the last year of study
• Research credit (i.e. lab rotation) or dissertation credit of at least 3 hours per semester
• Doctoral written and oral exam. The Qualifying Exam process (i.e, written and oral exam) is designed to assess the extent of the student’s knowledge acquired from course work in pharmaceutical science and test his or her ability to integrate and apply knowledge  to practical problems.
• Dissertation and final defense

We believe in the importance of in-depth training of students both in pharmaceutical sciences and modern engineering, mathematics, and computer science, as well as in the conduct of original research leading to the doctoral dissertation. Thus, we have designed the curriculum to offer rigorous and comprehensive training in the key principles of pharmaceutical sciences and engineering, yet maintain a high degree of flexibility for students to tailor the coursework to their specific interests suitable to their research projects.

Math/Applied Math Electives

Engineering Electives

Other courses can fulfill these electives upon petition by the student and approval by the director of graduate studies or the student’s Ph.D. advisory committee.

There is growing interest and need worldwide for Ph.D.s at the cutting edge of this exciting discipline, in academic institutions as well as the biomedical, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical industries. Data from the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, the primary national organization for the pharmaceutical sciences, indicate that at least three thousand positions exist for scientists with a Ph.D. in the subspecialties represented by pharmacoengineering, and the demand for such scientists and engineers are rapidly expanding. In addition, graduates from the Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics have traditionally been highly sought after — primarily by industry — and often receive offers of employment well in advance of finishing their degree.