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Eligible JHU PhD Programs

Please click on the program titles for more program information and to access individual program applications.
View this list by school.

Applied Mathematics & Statistics

The teaching and research programs of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics span modern applied mathematics.  The department’s curriculum in Probability/Statistics covers probability theory, stochastic processes, and applied and theoretical statistics. Its Operations Research/Optimization program includes continuous and discrete optimization, numerical optimization, network programming, and game theory. Its curriculum in Discrete Mathematics includes combinatorics, graph theory and cryptology, and coding.  Its program in Scientific Computing includes computing, numerical analysis, matrix analysis, and mathematical modeling of systems.  The programs of the department together emphasize mathematical reasoning, mathematical modeling and computation, abstraction from the particular, innovative application of mathematics, and development of new methodology.


Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

The PhD Program in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology is designed for students interested in graduate-level preparation for careers in biomedical and health sciences research. Emphasizing molecular studies of multiprotein systems, molecular and cellular biology, and biochemical nutrition, the research of our doctoral students has applications to cancer, aging, neurological diseases, and environmentally-based diseases. Doctoral training in reproductive biology focuses on reproductive physiology, molecular endocrinology, and cellular, molecular and developmental biology, with applications to aging, fertility/infertility regulation, and reproductive toxicology. Another area of strength in the department is cancer biology. Students are trained in basic biochemical, biophysical and molecular biological approaches that can be applied to critical problems in cancer biology.  


Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology

The Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology Graduate Program offers graduate training in the breadth of the biological sciences where students focus on problems of biomedical importance from a mechanistic perspective. Our students choose their thesis advisers from seven departments: biological chemistry, biophysics and biophysical chemistry, cell biology, molecular biology and genetics, neuroscience, pharmacology and molecular sciences, and physiology.


Biological Chemistry

The graduate program in Biological Chemistry offers training in the molecular mechanisms underlying a wide variety of biologic processes including nuclear structure & gene regulation, miRNA biogenesis & function, signaling, lipid metabolism & enzymology, exosome biology, cell polarity & migration, bacterial cell biology & cell division, immunology, host-pathogen interactions, pain & inflammation, stress responses, glycobiology, neurobiology, cancer, metabolism & bioenergetics, and proteomics and metabolomics.


Biomedical Engineering

Biomedical engineering applies modern approaches from the experimental life sciences in conjunction with theoretical and computational methods from engineering, mathematics and computer science to the solution of biomedical problems of fundamental importance, such as human health. Students train in the school of medicine and school of engineering in fields such as neuroengineering, medical imaging, computational medicine, and cell and tissue engineering.


Biophysics

Biophysics research plays a leading role in uncovering the beauty and intricacies of how biology works. Coupling math and physics with biochemistry, the strength of biophysics lies in analyzing biological systems in a quantitative fashion. In the Thomas C. Jenkins Department of Biophysics, we use cutting edge experimental techniques and modeling to gain mechanistic insight into a wide range of key biological questions.

The Program in Molecular Biophysics utilizes methods in biology, biochemistry, chemistry, physics, engineering and computer science to provide students with training in both the fundamental principles of biophysics and contemporary advances in the field. The program offers opportunities in such areas as X-ray crystallography, and optical spectroscopies, statistical mechanics, thermodynamics and biophysical chemistry, and it emphasizes studies of macromolecules and their assemblies.

The Jenkins Biophysics Program is ideal for students with strong math and computational backgrounds, and with a strong desire to learn thermodynamics, structural biology, and biophysics.


Biostatistics

The PhD program of the Johns Hopkins Department of Biostatistics provides training in the theory of probability and statistics and in biostatistical methodology. The program is unique in its emphasis on the foundations of statistical reasoning and in requiring its graduates to complete rigorous training in real analysis-based probability and statistics, equivalent to what is provided in most departments of mathematical statistics. Research leading to a thesis may involve development of new theory and methodology, or it may be concerned with applications of statistics and probability to problems in public health, medicine or biology.


Cell, Molecular, Developmental Biology, and Biophysics

The Program in Cell, Molecular, Developmental Biology, and Biophysics (CMDB) includes faculty from Johns Hopkins University’s departments of biology, biophysics, and chemistry, as well as from the Carnegie Institution for Science Department of Embryology. CMDB graduate students participate in a core curriculum that includes molecular biology, cellular biology, developmental biology, and biophysics. Students broaden their knowledge in these areas throughout their graduate training while specializing in their own research areas. Through this cross-training, PhDs emerge from the CMDB program prepared to tackle complex problems in the biosciences.


Cellular and Molecular Medicine

The Graduate Training Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine prepares scientists for laboratory research at the cellular and molecular level with a direct impact on the understanding, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of human diseases. Coursework covers human physiology, anatomy and histology, cellular and molecular basis of disease and introduction to clinical research. There are 130 mentoring faculty from 28 basic science or clinical departments. A clinical co-mentor directs individualized bench-to-bedside experience. Training in rigor and reproducibility and career opportunities are emphasized.


Cellular and Molecular Physiology

The Cellular and Molecular Physiology graduate program emphasizes fundamental and translational research on the mechanisms by which an organism maintains processes essential for life. The studies are characterized by integration of molecular, cellular and systems biology approaches and aim to mechanistically understand both normal and disease states.


Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Chemical and biomolecular engineering graduate students at Hopkins participate in collaborative research programs with scientists and engineers at the Homewood campus, the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, the Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoBioTechnology, the Applied Physics Laboratory, and nearby government laboratories, such as the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. This research network provides students with the opportunity to conduct research and learn in an extraordinary array of state-of-the-art laboratories. Key areas of research include: Biomolecular Engineering and Synthetic Biology; Self-Assembly and Soft Matter; Engineering for Precision Medicine; Nanomaterials for Energy, Catalysis, and Separations; and Modeling in the Big Data Era.


Chemical Biology

The Chemistry-Biology Interface (CBI) graduate program provides students with training that enables them to challenge the traditional boundaries currently separating chemistry from biology. The nature of the program provides students with an expansive choice of faculty thesis advisers (preceptors), whose research spans the range of the chemistry-biology interface. CBI coursework includes classes in chemistry and the biological, biochemical, and/or biomedical sciences. Graduates of the CBI Program are scientists capable of interdisciplinary research, who approach both chemistry and biology from a more global and health-related perspective.


Chemistry

Johns Hopkins University was the first American institution to establish a PhD program in chemistry. The Hopkins graduate program is designed for students who desire a PhD in chemistry while advancing scientific knowledge for humankind. The graduate program provides students with the background and technical expertise required to be leaders in their field and to pursue independent research. Working in conjunction with a faculty member or team, individually tailored thesis projects enable students to think independently about cutting-edge research areas that are of critical importance. Multidisciplinary research and course offerings that increase scientific breadth and innovation are hallmarks of the program. 


Civil and Systems Engineering

The PhD program in Civil Engineering aims to inspire the leaders of tomorrow to take on the challenge of creating and sustaining the built environment that underpins our society. Focal research areas in the department include structural engineering, structural mechanics, probabilistic methods, hazards management, and systems engineering. Students graduate from the program with a sense of the responsibility that the civil engineering profession accepts for applying the principles of engineering sciences for the betterment of the built environment and society. Its graduates have an appreciation of professional ethics and the value of service to their profession and society through participation in technical activities, and in community, state and national organizations.


Cognitive Science

Cognitive science is the study of the human mind and brain, focusing on how the mind represents and manipulates knowledge and how mental representations and processes are realized in the brain. Cognitive science has emerged at the interface of several disciplines. Central among these are cognitive psychology, linguistics, and portions of computer science and artificial intelligence; other important components derive from work in the neurosciences, philosophy, and anthropology. Cognitive scientists share the central goal of characterizing the structure of human intellectual functioning. Students are provided theoretically oriented research and training opportunities as they approach the study of the mind and brain from multiple perspectives. The PhD program’s primary goal is to train a new generation of cognitive scientists who can meld multiple existing disciplines into a new, genuinely integrated science of the mind/brain.


Computer Science

Computer Science at Johns Hopkins University (CS@JHU) is a diverse, collaborative, and intensely research-focused department. The faculty spans a broad spectrum of disciplines encompassing core computer science and several cross-disciplinary application areas including: Computational Biology and Medicine; Information Security; Machine Learning & Data Intensive Computing; Robotics, Vision & Graphics; Speech & Language Processing; Systems; and Theory & Programming Languages. Many CS faculty members have extra-departmental ties to various Hopkins multidisciplinary research centers, which are an important part of the Johns Hopkins intellectual environment. Our mission in the university is to enhance discovery and innovation in science, engineering and society through computing research and education.  


Cross-Disciplinary Program in Biomedical Sciences

The Cross-Disciplinary Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences (XDBio) aims to facilitate interdisciplinary research training bridging biology, engineering, computer science, physics, chemistry and medicine. Students will be offered a tailored, personalized curriculum guided by each student’s individual research interests, prior coursework and future goals.


Earth and Planetary Sciences

The Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences offers programs leading to the PhD degree in a wide range of disciplines, covering the atmosphere, biosphere, oceans, geochemistry, geology and geophysics, and planets. The graduate program is designed to give every student the training and the tools needed for independent research and a rewarding scientific career. The PhD program is flexible so that every student has a custom experience.


Electrical and Computer Engineering

Research in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering reflects the diverse interests—from medicine to defense to environmental protection, to name a few—of our faculty and students. Our research activities are closely coupled with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Applied Physics Laboratory, which enables collaborations capable of addressing global challenges. Though the research conducted in our department covers a wide range of applications, the underlying question of every project is the same: how can we help? Our strengths in traditional research areas enable us to develop solutions for, and adapt to changes in, the areas of Cyber-Bio-Physical Systems, Human Language, Nano-Bio Photonics, and Image and Signal Processing. Within these areas, we address issues related to whole body sensing, smart buildings and infrastructures, and beyond-CMOS and cognitive computing.


Environmental Health and Engineering

The Department of Environmental Health and Engineering offers three track options for our PhD in Environmental Health. The track in Health Security focuses on research and training in a wide, complementary range of topics aimed to reduce health security threats and their impacts, and to increase community resilience to global catastrophic biological risks. Basic research in the Toxicology, Physiology & Molecular Mechanisms track is focused on discovering novel molecular mechanisms that drive the pathophysiology of major chronic diseases to develop prevention and therapeutic strategies to improve public health. The Exposure Sciences and Environmental Epidemiology track offers research and training opportunities in key topic areas relevant to environmental and occupational health. These areas include air, water, the food system, early life exposures, metals and synthetic chemicals, environmental microbiology, the built environment, global environmental health, molecular and integrated epidemiology, and the investigation of susceptibility factors and effective interventions. 


Functional Anatomy and Evolution

The Center for Functional Anatomy and Evolution focuses on the exploration of relationships among functional anatomy, behavior and evolutionary biology of extant and extinct vertebrates. Graduate students conduct original research in evolutionary organismal biology, working in laboratory settings, exploring collections at JHMI and the Smithsonian, and conducting fieldwork. Students also gain experience teaching human anatomy in the school of medicine.


Health Sciences Informatics

The Division of Health Sciences Informatics seeks to advance the development and use of information technology for decision-making, research, health care delivery and individual academic growth.


Human Genetics and Genomics

The Human Genetics and Molecular Biology PhD program in the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine seeks to further the understanding of human heredity and genetic medicine and use that knowledge to treat and prevent disease. The program trains students for academic careers in the field of human genetics.


Immunology

The Graduate Program in Immunology trains students in the basic mechanisms of the immune system and the application of this knowledge to the understanding and treatment of disease. Research areas include investigations of human infectious diseases, exploration of cell signaling and genetic pathways critical for immune development and function, or engaging in the study of immune–mediated processes in autoimmunity, transplantation or cancer.


Materials Science and Engineering

Materials scientists seek to understand the connections between the structure of materials and their properties, how particular properties can be achieved through suitable processing, and the applications of materials to modern technologies. The Department of Materials Science and Engineering is highly interdisciplinary, bringing together students and faculty with diverse interests to address urgent technological needs. Particular areas of strength include biomaterials, nanomaterials, organic semiconductors, metallic glasses, materials characterization, and thin films.


Mathematics

The goal of the Mathematics PhD program is to train graduate students to become research mathematicians. Faculty research interests  are concentrated in several areas of pure mathematics, including analysis and geometric analysis, algebraic geometry and number theory, differential geometry, algebraic topology, category theory, and mathematical physics. The department also has an active group in data science, in collaboration with the Applied Math Department.


Mechanical Engineering

The research initiatives in the Department of Mechanical Engineering push the envelope of core disciplines such as fluid mechanics and thermal processes, kinematics and dynamics, mechanics and materials, biomechanics, and computational engineering. Cutting-edge applications are pursued in robotics and human-machine interaction, micro- and nano-scale engineered devices and materials, energy and the environment, aerospace and marine systems, and biology and medicine. Problem solving is at the heart of the department’s approach to engineering education. Our approach is highly interdisciplinary and collaborative, and we stress the exploration of innovative and even unconventional ideas.


Molecular Microbiology and Immunology

Opportunities for doctoral research in MMI are multifaceted and include research in the areas of virology, bacteriology, parasitology, mycology, vaccine development, host immunity, pathogenesis, autoimmunity, bioinformatics, ecology of infectious diseases, and medical entomology. PhD students learn fundamental and mechanistic approaches to solving essential questions in microbiology, immunology and public health. MMI PhD students practice their skills in one of three research training areas: molecular and cellular basis of infectious diseases, malaria and mosquito-borne diseases, and rigorous immunological and microbiological research investigations.


Neuroscience

The Neuroscience Training Program curriculum spans the breadth of modern neuroscience, from molecular/cellular underpinnings to systems/cognitive integration. Work with our trainees has led to fundamental discoveries in the organization of the cerebral cortex, neurotransmitter signaling, neuronal and glial cell development, and circuit function.


Pathobiology

The Graduate Program in Pathobiology in the Department of Pathology educates PhD trainees in basic and translational research in human pathology. Students effectively bridge molecular and cell biology with clinically relevant biological science and pathological biology. Students are rigorously trained in mechanisms of disease by clinical and basic science experimental pathologists, therefore gaining unparalleled access to human tissues and specimens in health and disease.


Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences

The focus of the Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences graduate program is on chemical biology, the molecular interactions of living systems and the application of this knowledge in pharmacology to fields including immunology, virology, cancer and neuroscience.


Physics and Astronomy

Graduate programs in physics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins University are among the top programs in the field. Students engage in original research starting in their first semester and have flexibility in choosing their course of research and designing their path through the program. A wide range of research projects—both theoretical and experimental—are available in astrophysicscondensed matter physicsparticle physics, and plasma spectroscopy. Graduate students can work toward a PhD in either physics or astronomy and astrophysics. Doctoral students are prepared for careers in physics and astronomy research, teaching, or in applications such as biophysics, space physics, and industrial research.


Psychological and Brain Sciences

Psychological and brain sciences are concerned with understanding the biological and psychological processes underlying animal and human behavior, and with the effects of environmental influences on behavior at all stages of development. The program for doctoral students in psychological and brain sciences is scientifically oriented and emphasizes research methodology. The broad aims of the graduate program are to train students to become scientists rather than practitioners, and to provide them with the knowledge and skills they need to help solve the problems of contemporary society. The core program for training doctoral students emphasizes scientific methodology and provides training in both pure research and research related to problems in the world.


Eligible JHU PhD Programs by School

Bloomberg School of Public Health

  • Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
  • Biostatistics
  • Environmental Health and Engineering
  • Molecular Microbiology and Immunology

Krieger School of Arts and Sciences

  • Cell, Molecular, Developmental Biology, and Biophysics
  • Biophysics
  • Chemical Biology
  • Chemistry
  • Cognitive Science
  • Earth and Planetary Sciences
  • Mathematics
  • Physics and Astronomy
  • Psychological and Brain Sciences

Whiting School of Engineering

  • Applied Mathematics & Statistics
  • Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
  • Civil Engineering
  • Computer Science
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Environmental Health and Engineering
  • Materials Science and Engineering
  • Mechanical Engineering

School Of Medicine

  • Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology
  • Biological Chemistry
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Cellular and Molecular Medicine
  • Cellular and Molecular Physiology
  • Cross-disciplinary Program in Biomedical Sciences (XDBio)
  • Functional Anatomy and Evolution
  • Health Sciences Informatics
  • Human Genetics and Genomics
  • Immunology
  • Neuroscience
  • Pathobiology
  • Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences

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