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MCS College Council
October 12, 2004

In Attendance:
Amy Burkert
Gregg Franklin
Rea Freeland
Fred Gilman
Eric Grotzinger
Elizabeth Jones
Paul Karol
DJ Kleinbanum
Hyung Kim
Richard McCullough
Roy Nicolaides
Audria Stubna

Bob Murphy
Gordon Rule


  1. Proposal for new course: 38-709 Applied Cellular & Molecular Biology (handout)

    Amy Burkert presented a proposal for a new course, 38-709 Applied Cell & Molecular Biology. This course will serve as a pre-requisite for 38-710 Principles of Biotechnology, which is being offered for the first time this fall. The instructors have found that many of the students lack the proper background for the course and feel that a preliminary course is necessary. It will include basic background in major topics that would be covered in courses on prokaryotic and eukaryotic molecular biology and molecular cell biology.

    Edwin Minkley will be the instructor for 38-709. Maximum enrollment is limited to 20 students. Dr. Minkley's salary will come from the Tepper School and the Biotechnology Management Program. He is special faculty in the Department of Biological Sciences.

    Other students, aside from those in the MBA biotechnology track, who might take the course include biomedical engineers or biology and chemistry majors who would take it as an elective.

    COLLEGE COUNCIL ACTION: The course was approved unanimously.


  2. Proposal for PhD Program in Molecular & Cellular Biophysics (handout)
    Gordon Rule presented a proposal for a new PhD program in molecular and cellular biophysics. This program would exist independently of any department in MCS and would be housed in the Dean's Office. A long term goal is to make this a joint program with the University of Pittsburgh, but initially students would be admitted to either Carnegie Mellon or University of Pittsburgh. The greater number and diversity of faculty research in this field between the universities will make the program attractive to prospective students and should improve recruiting efforts. Taking advantage of the resources available at Pitt will also help to distribute teaching load, administrative work, and programs such as journal clubs or lecture series.

    Although there are currently biophysics tracks available in the Departments of Biological Sciences and Physics, these are not satisfactory to students interested in this field for several reasons:
    • Acceptance into one of these two departments means that students are required to meet the departmental requirements in order to obtain a degree. These requirements are too heavily weighted in either biological sciences or physics and do not provide appropriate training for those interested in biophysics.
    • Students often feel isolated from those in their department who are primarily interested in one field or the other.
    A previous attempt at a similar interdisciplinary program in biochemistry and biophysics (BBP) was made several years ago and did not succeed. This is likely because the program may have been viewed as a recruiting tool by the students and required them to be affiliated with a particular department, leaving them unsatisfied after they started the program.

    The model for this program would be similar to that of the CNBC. Students would be accepted to either CMU or Pitt but if they chose a research mentor from the other university, they would be transferred there. Every effort would be made to determine who the research mentor would be prior to acceptance in order to minimize transfers. Tuition would be required as per the university where the student is accepted (or transferred into). CNBC reported that they have relatively little transfer between universities. Students recruited into the program would be supported as TAs for the first year and then by individual research grants. TA assignments would be matched as closely as possible to their area of expertise and could be in chemistry, physics, or biology courses.

    The proposed program has already been approved and is in operation at Pitt. Current Pitt courses required for the program should be approved and assigned CMU course numbers to make it possible for students from both universities to register for them. These courses would be available to qualified, interested undergraduates as well.

    Concerns and comments about this proposal included:
    • A request for more details about how TA assignments would be determined and the how admissions would be handled.
      Admissions would be handled by a joint committee between Pitt and CMU, so that if a student needs to transfer between the two universities, acceptance will have already been approved.
    • Stipends are relatively similar at both universities, however, specific guidelines about how they will be determined need to be laid out in the proposal.
    • Is there a possibility that faculty will shift out of their departments and into this program and how will the departments be compensated for this loss? Similarly, the burden on departmental faculty will be increased as a result of the need for committee participation to administer the program.
      In response, Gordon pointed out that this program will provide a support mechanism for faculty who are interested in doing research in biophysics and by bringing in quality students, will have a positive impact on the departments. The relatively small number of students admitted to the program each year will mean that any burden to the departments will be minimal.
    • There was concern about a sense of community among students in the program. Will they feel isolated from those in the departments whom they work with? How will they fit \ in with regard to departmental journal clubs, retreats, etc.?
      Since students will be split into departments in order to TA, they will develop some sense of community within those departments.
    • Will the current degrees within the departments that offer tracks in this area continue to be offered?
      There is no reason not to offer these degrees, though relatively few students have pursued them.
    • Can we do benchmarking with similar programs?
      Pitt's program is relatively new, but University of Virginia has had a program in place for 25 years that has been very successful in recruiting and in obtaining NIH grants. This program is roughly the same size as our would be, targeting four to six new students per year, ultimately supporting a maximum of about 30 students.

      The physics department is expecting to hire several more faculty members who specialize in biophysics and would lend support to the program.

      UCSF has a campus wide program in biophysics, but no research into the details of the program has been done.

      Other interdepartmental programs within CMU should also be considered. Computational Finance, although a master's degree program, is one example. Administratively, it is handled almost entirely by the Department of Mathematical Sciences. Core requirements have periodically been changed to accommodate students entering with a wider variety of backgrounds, which has led to the perception that the quality of the program is weakening. However, this is an issue that is probably common to all interdisciplinary programs.


    Feedback and comments, in writing, should be sent to Gordon.

    COLLEGE COUNCIL ACTION: The council supports the program, but requested that a more detailed proposal that addresses some of the concerns mentioned above, should be distributed before it is officially approved.


  3. Proposal for PhD Program in Computational Biology (handout)
    Bob Murphy presented a proposal for new PhD program in computational biology. This program would be independent of any department and would involve joint participation from University of Pittsburgh. It has been a grass roots effort on the part of the Departments of Biological Sciences and Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon, but also has top-down support from both universities. There are approximately 40 faculty members (between both universities) who plan to support the program.

    Issues included the following:
      How much control over the program would MCS have?
      There is a large pool of qualified students and tremendous strengths on both campuses. MCS would have input into the admissions process and would benefit from the high quality students who would be admitted.
    • What about physical space to accommodate this program/its students?
      There is currently no physical space available, but hope that there will be some in the future. The new Gates building was mentioned as a possibility.
    • Will there be a sufficient number of qualified students?
      Bob said that he gets numerous inquiries from qualified students each week who are interested in finding such a program. He did not feel that finding qualified applicants would be an issue at all. He expressed the opinion that Carnegie Mellon undergraduates should be discouraged from applying, but the group agreed that they should not be formally prohibited from entering the program. Given our undergraduate computational biology degree and strong departments in both biological sciences and computer science, it is likely that there will be qualified applicants from Carnegie Mellon.


    There are relatively few universities that offer this type of program, but some competitors are:
    • UCSF
    • UCSD
    • Madison
    • Harvard
    • MIT


    The list of electives provided in the handout is tentative and faculty in these areas will decide on a final list when the program is approved. The program will require three electives from one track and a fourth from a different track.

    College council members should forward and comments or feedback to Bob.

    COLLEGE COUNCIL ACTION: The program was approved unanimously.


  4. Establishing a Guy C. Berry Graduate Research Award (handout)
    The proposed Guy C. Berry Research Award would honor excellence in graduate research. It is named in honor of Guy C. Berry, Professor of Chemistry, whose research career sets an outstanding example for PhD students. The handout describes guidelines for eligibility, nomination, and selection.

    COLLEGE COUNCIL ACTION: The award was approved unanimously.