Preparing scientists to reveal the intricacies of living systems through the application of physics and chemistry
About
UCSF Biophysics Graduate Program
The Biophysics Graduate Program (BP) at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) spans research at the interface of physics, chemistry, and biology. It is an area of tremendous growth and interest to students who want to explore the physical properties, structures, and interrelationships of living things by using physics and chemistry to quantify biological processes at the molecular, cellular, and systems levels.
UCSF’s Biophysics Graduate Program focuses on seven research areas:
- Biophysical approaches to cell biology
- Complex biological systems
- Computational and theoretical biophysics
- Membrane biophysics
- Protein engineering and synthetic biology
- Proteomics and genomics
- Structural biology
Within the Biophysics curriculum, core courses provide training in macromolecular structures, cellular biophysics, and computation of biological molecules with optional courses in statistics and bioinformatics.
By its very nature, biophysics is collaborative, and UCSF’s Biophysics Graduate Program reflects this collaboration. Our program faculty members come from a variety of fields that employ biophysical and computational techniques.
The Biophysics Graduate Program is one of 23 graduate programs at UCSF, 17 of which offer a PhD. It is set within the interdisciplinary education environment for which UCSF is so well known, and it is physically located on UCSF’s contemporary research campus in the Mission Bay district of San Francisco. The program ranks among the top in the nation according to U.S. News & World Report's 2018 Best Biophysics/Structural Biology Programs. Our alumni work in academic, industry, and government research and in fields from high school science education to intellectual property law.
