Support for Graduate Training Yields Valued Expertise

Historically, the Comparative Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program (Veterinary Science Graduate Program prior to 2004) has produced numerous leaders in industry and academia, including at least eight deans or recent deans of Schools and Colleges of Veterinary Medicine, two inductees to the National Academy of Sciences, three initiates into the USDA Science Hall of Fame, and the founding director of the National Wildlife Health Laboratory.

The success of these graduates is a testament to the program’s effectiveness.

In today’s environment, however, competition for top quality students is fierce.  To remain   competitive, the Comparative Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program is committed to securing funds to provide students with an optimal experience upon entry into our graduate training program.  The primary use of these funds will be to provide, to incoming students, lab “rotations” in several laboratories prior to committing to one.  These rotations are now standard in the top tier graduate training programs at both the UW and the other universities with whom we compete for the best applicants. Rotations allow both the student and the major professor to determine they’ve found the best fit.  Providing this rotation experience will allow the Comparative Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program to prevent erosion of the quality of applicants to our program.

Securing external funds is essential as neither research grants nor the university budget can provide the financial support needed for these laboratory rotations. 

With your help, we can make it happen
Our goal is to establish an endowment to support students enrolled jointly in a DVM/PhD program.  Garnering the resources needed to attract the best graduate students will allow the Comparative Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program to continue to produce the outstanding graduates who will formulate the public policy of tomorrow based on hypothesis-driven science and cutting-edge technologies.