PhD Training Program in Biotechnology

Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, was chartered in New Brunswick in 1766 as Queen’s College, the eighth institution of higher learning to be founded in the thirteen colonies. Renamed Rutgers College in 1825, it became the land-grant college of New Jersey in 1864, attained university status in 1924 and was designated the state university of New Jersey in 1945. Most recently in 2013, 7 schools of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey became part of Rutgers increasing the student population to more than 65,000 students and the overall budget to nearly $4 billion. Today, Rutgers is among the top 25 research universities in the nation, a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities, and the Big Ten conference.

In the 1980s, the state of New Jersey strengthened its commitment to science and technology with the passage of two major state bond issues benefiting higher education and the formation of the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology. Rutgers was a major beneficiary of these initiatives, which resulted in unprecedented growth in faculty and facilities. As part of this growth, numerous distinguished scholars were added to the faculty and several new advanced technology research centers were formed. The new centers have consolidated the university’s partnership with New Jersey’s chemical, pharmaceutical and high-technology industries, thus offering expanded resources and research opportunities.

The Rutgers Biotechnology Training Program was established in 1989. Selected by the National Institutes of Health in 1990 to receive one of the first nine predoctoral training grants for biotechnology nationwide, the program offers individually designed educational, research, and internship opportunities to students pursuing doctoral degrees in a variety of related scientific disciplines. Growth and research synergies in medical biotechnology at Rutgers were further propelled by: 1) the establishment of the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine and the expansion of the Waksman Institute in the late 1980s, 2) the establishment of the Cancer Institute of New Jersey in the 1990s, and 3) the Rutgers "Renaissance in Bioengineering" supported by the Whitaker Foundation and several state and federal agencies from 2001-09.