In your first year, you will also take up to two courses from already existing course offerings to balance your background with your desired research activities. These “gap‐filling” courses give you an opportunity to broaden your capabilities and explore areas of quantitative biology that are new to you. Courses from any of our participating departments can be chosen, depending on your background and future research interests. The selection of these courses will be approved or assigned by members of the Academic Advising Committee who will take into consideration the IQ Biology Core Competencies and Key Foundational Areas as well as your individual research interests. Undergraduate coursework may be taken for one of the two courses; however, the graduate school will not allow undergraduate credits to apply toward the credits required for a Ph.D. by the Graduate School.

To find courses you might like to take, please explore the course listings of our participating departments. 

Gap filling-classes students have taken in the past include:

  • APPM 2360 - Introduction to Differential Equations with Linear Algebra
  • APPM 3310 - Matrix Methods and Applications 
  • APPM 3570 - Applied Probability
  • APPM 4520/5520 - Introduction to Mathematical Statistics
  • APPM 4390/5390 - Mathematical Biology
  • APPM 5560 - Markov Processes, Queues, and Monte Carlo Simulations
  • APPM 5570 - Statistical Methods
  • APPM 5600 - Numerical Analysis I
  • ASEN 5051 - Fluid Mechanics 
  • CHEM 4611 - Survey of Biochemistry
  • CHEM 5341 - Chemical Biology and Drug Design
  • CSCI 2270 - Computer Science II: Data Structures
  • CSCI 3104 - Algorithms
  • CSCI 4314/5314 - Algorithms for Molecular Biology
  • CSCI 7000 - Current Topics in Computer Science: Information Visualization
  • CSCI 7000 - Current Topics in Computer Science: Computer Storage Systems
  • CSCI 7000 - Current Topics in Computer Science: Intro to Virtual Reality
  • CSCI 7000 - Current Topics in Computer Science: Scientific Visualization
  • CSCI 7000 - Current Topics in Computer Science: Data Science Team
  • EBIO 4120 - Advanced Ecology
  • EBIO 5460 - Special Topics: Evolutionary Ecology
  • EBIO 5800 - Critical Thinking in Biology - Microbial Ecology
  • IPHY 5800 - Advanced Statistics and Research Methods in Integrative Physiology 
  • MCDB 3135 - Molecular Cell Biology I
  • MCDB 5230 - Gene Expression 
  • MCDB 4314/5314 - Algorithms for Molecular Biology