Program Overview

Georgia Tech has established a professional Masters of Science in Bioinformatics program which started in Fall 1999 with an enrollment of 14 students.

Why would a strong candidate want to choose this program?

This program is designed to help you achieve your goals.
    In 18 months you complete an intensive curriculum, studying specially designed courses in CS, Math, and Bioinformatics along with Biochemistry, Biophysics, Statistics and Biology.
     In 18 months you gain knowledge and skills necessary and sufficient to start your career in industry as a Bioinformatics or Biocomputing specialist. Also, you will find yourself in a much better position to apply for a PhD program if, along the road, you decide that you prefer an academic career.

Why this program should be your first choice?

One feature is "location, location, location"…
     Atlanta is strategically located in the heart of the Southeastern United States. where many famous companies such as CNN, Delta, Coca-Cola, Home Depot, etc., choose to operate from because of its centrality. Atlanta is a cool city - check it out.
     Georgia Tech, the best technological university of Georgia and one of the best in the nation, is located in the Atlanta Midtown district, which is experiencing unprecedented growth since 1996 when Georgia Tech served as the village for the 99th Summer Olympic Games.
     The School of Biology is located on campus adjacent to the College of Computing, School of Biomedical Engineering, School of Physics and to the Institute of Bioscience and Bioengineering. Georgia Tech has strong research connections with Emory University, and students go between campuses by shuttle.

The second and most important thing is the program quality.
    The Georgia Tech MS in Bioinformatics program was established in 1999 with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. This program was cited by Science as the first of its kind in the US. Obviously, when we were the sole program in the nation, we ranked as the top program. Now we are maintaining our efforts to stay the top program.
     Among the students who come to Georgia Tech to study Bioinformatics, you will find graduates of the best universities in Europe, Asia, as well as in the US, including Duke and Harvard.

Georgia Tech also runs the unique series of international conferences in Bioinformatics (http://exon.biology.gatech.edu/conference/) supported by the US National Institutes of Health and the US Department of Energy.

The degree program has been made possible through a close collaboration among the School of Biology, the School of Mathematics, the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and the College of Computing. The program provides students with the practical skills and the theoretical understanding they need to become experts in Bioinformatics.

Bioinformatics, a new discipline integrating mathematical, statistical and computer methods to analyze biological, biochemical and biophysical data, has not been systematically taught at universities yet. Our program is one of the first of its kind in the United States.

Quantitative and computer methods in molecular biology are becoming increasingly important at a time when an enormous wealth of genetic information has been brought to researchers by revolutionary techniques in DNA sequencing. Genomics based approaches to drug design are now the R&D focus at pharmaceutical companies. Basic research in genomics is growing in academic labs around the world. In fact, "In the future, many biomedical scientists will have to be well educated in both biology and computer science. One-sided education will not work."
(Source: The Biomedical Information Science and Technology Initiative, National Institutes of Health, June 3, 1999)

Individuals with a variety of undergraduate backgrounds, such as Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics and Engineering may be accepted to the program. The program curriculum was formed in such a way that each student that is capable of successfully completing an individually tailored intensive program of studies would be able to assume an appropriate job in Bioinformatics in either industry or academia.