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School of Computer Science
To Offer Computational
Biology Major
Graduates in High Demand by Biotechnology and
Pharmaceutical Companies
By: Byron Spice / 412-268-9068 / bspice@cs.cmu.edu
Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science will launch a new bachelor’s degree program in computational biology next fall, complementing the Computational Biology Department’s existing Ph.D. and master’s degree programs.
The undergraduate degree program at one of the world’s leading computer science schools will pre- pare students for positions now in high demand in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, as well as for medical school and graduate studies across the spectrum of computation and biology.
Computational biology enables users to leverage computational approaches to scientific discovery that could not be made with traditional means.
“Computer science increasingly is driving the re- search agendas in any number of disciplines, includ- ing biomedical research,” said Andrew Moore, dean
of the School of Computer Science. “That’s why it’s especially important for a degree program in com- putational biology to be within our school, providing students with the rigorous computational perspective for which we are famous.”
Though the School of Computer Science offers nu- merous master’s degree and Ph.D. programs in a vari- ety of general and specialized computer science areas, the new bachelor’s degree in computational biology will be just the second undergraduate program with- in the school, joining the Computer Science Depart- ment’s bachelor’s degree program that began in 1989. Admitted students in computer science will have the option to add computational biology as a minor or second major.
The curriculum for the new program emphasizes those aspects of computer science that are most relevant for computational biology, and provides firm foundations in natural sciences. It builds upon a pioneering compu- tational biology program launched in 1987 and previ- ously administered by the Mellon College of Science.
“With the new program, we are providing a curricu- lum designed to train students to tackle the biomed- ical problems of the next century through rigorous training within one of the leading computer science institutions in the world,” said Robert F. Murphy, head of the Computational Biology Department. “An important goal in designing the curriculum was to retain the outstanding grounding in computer science associated with the computer science major while making room for coursework in biology and computational biology.”
Students will learn from faculty members who are internationally recognized leaders in computation- al biology. Phillip Compeau, an assistant teaching professor who co-created the online introductory learning materials for computational biology known as Rosalind, will serve as academic adviser for new computational biology majors.
Information about the new program is available online.
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