The Joint Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. program is offered through the Georgia Tech/Emory Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME). The degree is conferred jointly by both Georgia Tech and Emory. The curriculum is based on an integration of life sciences, engineering, and mathematics. The goal is to enable students to postulate and solve biomedical problems quantitatively and with a systems perspective. Both Georgia Tech and Emory faculty will provide an integrative teaching medium for students by "team-teaching" courses. All students entering the program, regardless of undergraduate major, will be integrated into the same classes and are subject to the same program prerequisites.

One year of core courses establish the fundamental principles in both life science and engineering.  Problem-based learning in the first year will complement the engineering and life science courses. Other requirements include a bioethics course, a seminar course, a teaching course, a teaching practicum, and a nine-hour minor program of study outside the student's thesis research area.

Students can opt for summer rotations before the beginning of their first semester. Students are matched with their thesis advisor before the fall semester of their first year or within the first six weeks of the fall semester. The student is required to successfully defend a written Ph.D. proposal to his/her thesis committee within nine semesters after entering the program. The student should complete his/her thesis research, prepare a written dissertation, and defend the dissertation in an oral examination within five years after entering the Ph.D. program. Students will be awarded a joint Ph.D. degree upon successful completion of this final examination and dissertation acceptance by the graduate schools of Georgia Tech and Emory.

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BME Ph.D. Minimum Prerequisites
B.S. in Engineering or Life Sciences
One year of calculus based physics
One semester of organic chemistry, two semesters recommended
Calculus up through ordinary differential equations (normally two years)

*Engineering students, who have not completed the organic chemistry requirement, and Life Science students, who have not completed the calculus based physics requirement, must fulfill those requirements prior to beginning the program.

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