Microbiology and Immunology

Overview

You will be spending the next few years working in the lab of your choice and this will be the stepping stone to your future success.  While you certainly want to choose a project that you are passionate about, you also want to pay attention to the lab and departmental environment. 

Traditional measurements, such as rankings and publication records will give you an idea on the overall success of a lab is, but they might be less important for your everyday happiness. 

The most important point is to find a PhD advisor who serves as a mentor, who is approachable, available when you have questions and dedicated to your project and your future success. The Microbiology and Immunology program is offered by University of Utah.

Research environment 

When looking for a PhD graduate program you should not only focus on the curriculum and potential thesis advisor, but you want to ensure that the university and department provide the environment needed to successfully complete your PhD. Apart from adequate equipment, well equipped core facilities, easy access to research journals and ways to interact with other students and faculty, you also want to take a look at the expertise of the faculty and training opportunities. 

The University of Utah offers an outstanding research environment. It has a long-standing history of research from inventing and implanting the first artificial heart, to inventing the first genetic knockout technologies. 

The University strongly supports and inspires innovation and is consistently ranked among the top universities not only for research, but also for start-up formations. The University also offers a terrific variety of core facilities with cutting-edge technologies and equipment available to all investigators, staff and students. Our division is dedicated to research and mentoring students. 

Within our division, we have 3 AAI lifetime fellows among our faculty (Peter Jensen, Brian Evavold, and Sue Ostrand-Rosenberg), students have the opportunity to apply for 3 different NIH training grants held by the Division of Microbiology and immunology and we train PhD students in obtaining F31 training grants during the course of their Graduate program.