Neuroscience

Neuroscience

www.vetmed.wsu.edu/depts-vcapp/graduate

Admission Requirements

• Applicants for admission to the neuroscience program must have a minimum grade point average of 3.0 (A=4.0), either on the basis of the last 60 graded semester or 90 graded quarter hours of undergraduate study, or on the basic science portion (first 60 credit hours) of a professional curriculum.
• Applicants generally will be expected to have completed courses in organic chemistry, calculus, physics, and a minimum of three courses in different areas of the biological sciences.
• Applicants are advised to have a basic statistics course prior to entering the neuroscience or veterinary science programs.
• Deficiencies in any of these areas must be cleared during the period of graduate study before the preliminary exam.

Program Description

Innovation by WSU scientists advances the world’s understanding of how nerve cells in the brain produce our feelings and behaviors and how disturbances in the delicate organization of the brain lead to poor health. These neuroscientists seek answers to questions that touch on every aspect of life, including feeling, eating, sleeping, remembering, sensing, and maintaining health. The brain’s intricate web of billions of cells is flexibly inter-linked. This plasticity allows connections to be changed in response to the environment; in some brain areas fifty percent of the connections change daily. This complex dynamic network generates emotion, motivation, sleep, and memory. How these parts of our selves emerge from the flexible interactions among brain areas is one of the most intriguing, fundamental questions of life. Better understanding of this complexity is the key to reducing the societal impact of obesity, memory loss, mental illness, and drug  addiction, and to enhancing performance and health.

• The M.S. program is designed to provide broad training in the specific aspects of neuroscience and related disciplines to prepare students for careers in teaching, research, and service.
• The objectives for the Ph.D. level training are to prepare the candidate for a career as an independent investigator (i.e., can compete for NIH, NSF and private foundation grants as the principal investigator).

Department of Veterinary and Comparative Anatomy, Pharmacology, and Physiology (VCAPP)

Contact Information
Steve Simasko, Ph.D.
McCoy Hall 110
PO Box 646520
Pullman, WA 99164-6520
Telephone: 509-335-7675
Fax: 509-335-4650
E-mail: grad.neuro@wsu.edu