The philosophy of the Biology division graduate program is based on three central concepts: flexibility, diversity, and quality.

Flexibility refers to the structure of our graduate program. Students come here from different backgrounds and with different strengths and interests. The intimacy of our program and the small number of formal degree requirements allow us to accommodate this breadth and to meet the needs of each student.

Diversity refers to the backgrounds and research interests of our students and faculty. Knowledge of biology is expanding at an exponential pace, and as it expands it presents exciting opportunities for groundbreaking work at the interface of subareas of biology, or between biology and other disciplines. Because of the diverse research interests of the Biology division faculty and the excellent resources that allow us to pursue interdisciplinary research, Caltech provides an outstanding environment for innovation.

Quality refers to the excellence of our faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and students. Caltech’s Biology faculty is composed of internationally recognized leaders in biological research. Students and postdoctoral fellows who have demonstrated outstanding ability in research and scholarship come to Caltech to advance their education. Many of our students have gone on to become leaders in their fields all over the world.

Although the central concepts underlying our graduate educational program—flexibility, diversity, and quality—are simple, they are effective. After a decade-long comprehensive survey of graduate programs in the United States, the National Research Council announced in 1995 that Caltech has the best PhD program in cellular and developmental biology, and is within the top ten in the fields of biochemistry and molecular biology, molecular and general genetics, and neuroscience