requirements for phd in harvard

• Utility Menu

• Department Intranet

Program Overview

The Department of Philosophy offers programs covering a wide range of fields in philosophy. The department’s graduate program is primarily a PhD program. In addition to the standard PhD in Philosophy, the department offers a PhD in Classical Philosophy in collaboration with the Department of the Classics, a PhD in Indian Philosophy in collaboration with the Department of South Asian Studies, and a joint JD/PhD program in conjunction with the Harvard Law School. Below you will find a list of the requirements for each program. The department does not admit applicants who wish to study only for the master’s (AM) degree. The AM may be taken as a step toward the PhD after a minimum of two terms in residence.

PhD in Philosophy

Graduate advising.

The department’s arrangement for advising students is structured to correspond to four stages of a student’s progress toward the PhD. These stages include the first year, the second-year paper, reading and research toward a dissertation topic, and work on the dissertation.

• The director of graduate studies is assigned as an advisor to all first-year students and continues to meet with all students at the beginning of each term and sign their study cards throughout their time in the program. Their advising role is particularly important during the coursework stage (generally through the second year), because they have principal responsibility for monitoring the student’s progress toward fulfilling the general requirements for the degree: the preliminary requirement, and the distribution requirement. In addition, each first-year student is assigned an informal faculty advisor.
• At the end of the first year, students should arrange with a member of the faculty to supervise the student’s second-year paper. That faculty member will be the student’s advisor during the second year. If necessary, the director of graduate studies is available to assist a student in finding a suitable faculty member.
• At the beginning of the third year, after the second year paper is completed, a student arranges for a faculty member to be their advisor during the process of exploring areas for a possible dissertation and formulating a topic and a prospectus. This advisor may be the same person as the second-year paper advisor but need not be. Normally, a student will continue with this advisor until the topical examination, but change is possible by arrangement among the parties involved.
• When a prospectus is well along, the student should discuss the formation of a dissertation committee with the advisor, the director of graduate studies, and possible committee members.  Normally, this committee has three members, two of whom must be Harvard faculty as members; however, the committee may consist of only two members at the time of the topical examination.  Committees may have a fourth member, who may be, with permission of the DGS, a faculty member in another Harvard department or at another institution. This committee conducts the topical examination and, after a successful topical, will continue supervising the student’s work on the dissertation. Normally it conducts the dissertation defense when the dissertation is completed.
• During work on the dissertation, change is possible by arrangement with the parties involved and with the approval of the director of graduate studies. At this stage, one member of the committee will be designated as the student’s advisor. The significance of this will vary as the supervision of dissertations is more collective in philosophy, for example, than in many other fields. In some cases, the advisor will be the principal supervisor, in others the role of the committee members will be close to equal and the choice of one advisor is a matter of convenience.

Preliminary Requirement

Candidates must pass at least twelve approved philosophy courses or seminars. The norm is that these course are completed during the first four terms in the department. Courses numbered 301 or above do not count toward this preliminary requirement, save that the two required terms of Philosophy 300, the First Year Colloquium, may be counted as two of the twelve. Independent Studies (Philosophy 305) may also be used to satisfy distribution requirements but not the preliminary requirement with the prior approval of the DGS. For a letter-graded course philosophy course to be considered satisfactory, the candidate’s grade in the course must be B or higher.  The average grade for all letter-graded philosophy courses taken during the candidate’s time in the program must be at least B+.

Courses taken to meet the preliminary requirement must be approved in advance by the department’s director of graduate studies. Students must take and complete Philosophy 300a plus two letter-graded courses or seminars during their first term and Philosophy 300b plus three letter-graded courses or seminars more in their second term, thus completing five letter-graded courses during the first two terms of residence.

These courses, like the rest of the twelve, should be among those designated “For Undergraduates and Graduates” or “Primarily for Graduates” in the course catalogue. At least ten of the courses must be taught by members of the Department of Philosophy (including visiting and emeritus members). This requirement can be modified for students specializing in Classical or Indian Philosophy.

All graduate students must complete two semesters of the Pedagogy seminar, Philosophy 315hf. Normally this is done during a student's third year in the program, when students begin functioning as teaching fellows. Exceptions to taking 315hf in the third year must be approved in advance by the DGS.

Students who have done graduate work elsewhere may petition the DGS to obtain credit for up to three courses, which may be counted toward the preliminary requirement. If they are in philosophy (as would normally be the case), such courses will be regarded as equivalent to those taught by members of the department.

Distribution Requirement

This requirement, intended to ensure a broad background in philosophy, is met by completing eight distribution units of work, normally before the beginning of the fourth year of graduate study. A distribution unit may be fulfilled (i) by completing an approved course or seminar (which may also be counted toward the preliminary requirement), or (ii) by writing a paper under the guidance of a faculty member, with the approval of the director of graduate studies. In the latter case the work does not count toward the preliminary requirement.

The units are to be distributed as follows:

• Contemporary Theoretical Philosophy: Three units in core areas of twentieth- and twenty-first century metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of science, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, and the like.
• Practical Philosophy: Two units in contemporary or historical ethics, political philosophy, aesthetics, and the like.
• History of Philosophy: The distribution requirement in history is intended to assure that students have knowledge of the philosophical tradition out of which contemporary Anglo-American philosophy has grown, as well as an ability to work though texts whose philosophical presuppositions are different enough from those of contemporary Anglo-American philosophy that careful historical and philosophical analysis is required to bring them to light.

Three sorts of courses satisfy the requirement:   A. Courses in ancient Greek, Roman, or medieval philosophy.   B. Courses in early modern European philosophy up to and including Kant.   C. Courses on the foundations of philosophical traditions other than contemporary Anglo-American philosophy. These might include courses on traditional South Asian or East Asian philosophy, 19th century Continental European philosophy, early 20th century work of Heidegger, and so on.   A student must take three history courses to satisfy the requirement; at most one of these may be in practical philosophy. Save in the most exceptional circumstances (and with the approval of the DGS), at least one of these courses must be of category A and at least one must be of category B. Students should verify (with the DGS) in advance of taking a course to satisfy the requirement that the course will in fact satisfy it.

The First-Year Colloquium (Philosophy 300a and 300b) may not be used to fulfill any part of the distribution requirement. Philosophy 299hf, the second-year paper, may be used to fulfill a distribution requirement.

Logic Requirement

Candidates for the Ph.D. are expected to have mastered the fundamentals of logic and to have an understanding of the elements of logic’s metatheory. Normally, this requirement is satisfied by successfully completing one of the Department’s 100-level courses in logic: 140 (Introduction to Mathematical Logic), 144 (Logic and Philosophy), or 145 (Modal Logic). It can also be satisfied by taking an appropriate mathematics course (for example, Mathematics 143, 144a, or 145b). The requirement may also be satisfied by an examination set by the DGS in consultation with appropriate Department members or by serving as a TF in a Department logic course.

Second-Year Paper

Students are required at the end of their second year in residence to submit a paper whose length is between 7,500 and 12,000 words including footnotes.

The expectation is not that the second-year paper should constitute a kind of Master’s Thesis; a better model is that of a journal article: i.e., an essay that sets out a focused philosophical problem, articulates its significance, and makes a significant contribution rather than a mere intervention. Given this goal, the second-year paper may under no circumstances be over 12,000 words, and generally will be significantly shorter. Students must annotate the paper with an accurate word count.

By the end of the first year, students need to have a faculty advisor who will supervise the second year paper. Together the advisor and advisee will write a plan of study for the summer and the first term of the second year, and submit it to the DGS. This plan of study will specify a schedule for submitting work and receiving feedback, and will also specify a benchmark to be met before the beginning of the second semester.

A preliminary draft of the second-year paper is to be submitted by the end of the spring vacation of the second semester, and a final draft is due by June 1st. Under extraordinary circumstances and with the written approval of both advisor and the DGS, the final version of the paper may be submitted after June 1st, but no later than August 1st.

Once the second-year paper is submitted to the advisor, the advisor forwards the paper to the DGS, who selects a faculty member to act as the paper’s reader. The author, advisor, and reader meet in a timely manner to discuss the paper, after which the examiner in consultation with the advisor awards the paper a grade. This grade will be recorded as the student’s grade for their two semesters of 299hf.

Normally, a student is not allowed to participate in a dissertation workshop until they have submitted their second-year paper.

The Third Year

In a successful third year, graduate students do two things: they acquire pedagogical skills and confidence as teachers; they make enough progress on isolating a dissertation topic that they are able, at the end of that year or by the end of the first term of the fourth year, to write a prospectus and have a successful topical exam.

Normally, at the end of a student's second year, the student's 2YP advisor and the DGS consult and then assign a pre-prospective advisor to the student. The pre-prospectus advisor need not, and often will not, be someone who specializes in the area in which a student expects to write a dissertation. Rather, the advisor is someone with whom the student is comfortable discussing philosophy and who can advise about directions of research. In many cases the pre-prospectus advisor may be the 2YP advisor, since the student has formed a working relationship with that faculty member.

The student and pre-prospectus advisor should meet before the end of spring exams. The meeting's purpose is to discuss the student's general area(s) of interest for a dissertation and, if the student is ready, to devise a tentative list of articles or books which the student will read and reflect on over the next twelve months.

G3s meet with their pre-prospectus advisor in the first days of the fall term. The aim of this meeting is to give the student a manageable set of concrete tasks to complete toward settling on a prospectus topic. In this meeting, advisor and student should decide on: a collection of at least six articles or book chapters to discuss at meetings; a schedule for meetings during the fall (the norm being a meeting roughly every two weeks); the written work the student commits to doing in advance of each meeting. This work need not be elaborate --it might, for example, be a few pages of critical summary and discussion of the reading for the meeting.

Until a successful defense of a prospectus, students register of that section of Philosophy 333 associated with their pre-prospectus advisor.

The norm is that in the fall term of year 3 students do research in the area in which they expect to write so that they can fashion a fairly specific topic for the prospectus; spring term is then devoted to writing a prospectus. Students normally aim at having a prospectus and a topical before the beginning of classes in the fourth year; the expectation is that students have done a topical by the end of the first term of their fourth year.

Students who have completed their second year paper are required to enroll each term in one of the two dissertation workshops, Philosophy 311, Workshop in Moral and Political Philosophy or Philosophy 312, Workshop in Metaphysics and Epistemology. In an academic year in which a student is actively seeking post Ph.D. employment, they are not required to enroll in a workshop.

This a requirement for the Ph.D.; it is only in unusual personal circumstances that students may fail to enroll in a workshop. Permission not to enroll in a Workshop must be granted by the director of graduate studies. G3s are not required to present more than once a year in a workshop, and it is understood that their presentations may consist of such things as (constrained) literature reviews, overviews of the particular area in a sub-discipline, or drafts or presentations of a prospectus.

Prospectus and Topical Examination

When the prospectus is complete, a candidate must pass an oral topical examination on the prospectus. The examining committee consists of at least two Philosophy Department faculty members. If the topical examination is not passed, it must be taken again and passed by the beginning of the winter recess in the year immediately following. Normally students have a successful topical by the end of their fourth year in the program.

Requirements for a prospectus are set by a student's dissertation committee and may vary with committee membership. That said, in many cases a good default model for a prospectus will simply be a list of clear, straightforward answers to the following five questions: (1) What question(s) do you intend your dissertation to answer? (2) Why do you consider these questions to be important? (3) What is a good summary of what you consider to be the most important contributions to these questions in the literature? (4) Why, in your view, do these contributions leave more work to be done? (5) What is your tentative plan of attack (including a list of sources you anticipate using)? Think of your answers to these questions as building a case for why your dissertation project needs to be done , along with a sketch of how you in particular plan to do it. Finally, limit yourself to about 5000 words.

Although called an examination, a topical (which is approximately ninety minutes in length) is in fact a conference on the dissertation topic, not an occasion on which the candidate is expected to produce a complete outline of arguments and conclusions. The conference is intended to determine the acceptability of the topic on which the candidate wishes to write a dissertation, the candidate’s fitness to undertake such a dissertation, and the candidate’s command of relevant issues in related areas of philosophy. A dissertation on the proposed topic may be submitted only if the topical examination is passed.

Application to take the topical examination must be made to the director of graduate studies at least two weeks in advance. At the same time, the candidate must submit copies of a dissertation prospectus to the director of graduate studies and members of the student’s prospective committee.

Financial Support, Travel and Research Funding, and Teaching

Beyond tuition remission, Ph.D. students receive the following financial support from the Graduate School.

· A stipend for their first two years. During this period, students do not teach.

· Financial support via guaranteed teaching in the third and fourth year . During this period, students are hired as teaching fellows; the normal workload for a teaching fellow is two sections a term.

· A dissertation completion fellowship. This includes a full stipend for one academic year.

In addition, various university fellowships (for example: Term Time and Merit Fellowships, Fellowships at the Safra Center) are available on a competitive basis.

The Department also grants each Philosophy graduate student one academic term of stipend support through Philosophy Department Fellowships and also a total of $5500 in fellowships for professional development. For details see: Funding | Department of Philosophy (harvard.edu)

Dissertation and Dissertation Defense

Once the topical exam is passed, the examining committee (which must consist of at least two faculty members of the Philosophy Department) normally becomes the dissertation advisory committee.  One member of the committee is the dissertation’s primary advisor (aka, the dissertation director).  It is expected that a student will have a committee of at least three members within a few months of the defense; the committee must have three members at the time of the defense.  It is possible, with the approval of the primary advisor and the DGS, to add a faculty member from another institution.  Normally a dissertation committee has no more than four members; larger committees must be approved by primary advisor and the DGS.

The primary advisor has primary responsibility for supervision for the dissertation.  The norm is that the student and the dissertation committee set out in advance how often students will meet with and receive feedback from advisors.  The expectation is that the committee and the student will meet as a body once a term to discuss progress on the dissertation.

At least three months before a final defense of the dissertation can be scheduled, the candidate must submit a draft of the dissertation or at least a substantial part of it to the committee.  Until this is done, a defense of the dissertation cannot be scheduled.  Assuming the committee approves scheduling a defense, the candidate completes a draft and circulates it to the committee. While it is a matter for the committee and the candidate to decide, the expectation is that the complete draft of the dissertation which will be defended will be circulated to the committee at least three weeks before the date of the defense . 

Dissertation defenses are public, and may be attended both by department members and other interested parties.  They are normally two hours in length, and normally begin with a brief summary by the candidate of what the candidate has accomplished in the dissertation, followed by a conversation between the candidate and the committee.  The purpose of this conversation is not so much to test the range and detail of the candidate’s knowledge as to judge the candidate’s skill in presenting and discussing matters considered in the dissertation as well as the candidate’s ability to meet friendly but searching criticism.

PhD in Classical Philosophy

The departments of the Classics and Philosophy collaborate in an interdisciplinary PhD program in Classical Philosophy for students registered in either department. Candidates whose major field is philosophy are expected to take the Proseminar for graduate students in the classics, as well as attend seminars or other courses in classics relevant to their interests. With the approval of the director of graduate studies, students in the Classical Philosophy program may be permitted to count an appropriate course in ancient philosophy toward the distribution requirement in metaphysics and epistemology and one (in addition to the one already required) toward the requirement in history of philosophy.

Language requirements:

Candidates who plan to write a dissertation in Classical Philosophy are expected to have learned at least one of the classical languages (Greek or Latin) before they are admitted. Depending upon the level of fluency they have reached before entering the program, they may be asked to take additional language or reading courses. If they have not previously studied the second language, they will be required to reach the level of one year of college coursework. This can be done either by taking courses or by passing a language examination. In addition, candidates will be expected to have acquired a reading knowledge of German sufficient for reading scholarly literature and to pass a departmental examination on a suitably chosen text. The rules and procedures for the dissertation will, in general, be those established for candidates in philosophy.

PhD in Indian Philosophy

The departments of Philosophy and South Asian Studies collaborate in an interdisciplinary PhD program in Indian Philosophy for students registered in either department. Candidates whose major field is Philosophy are expected to take advanced language courses in South Asian studies and pass AM qualifying examinations. Candidates whose major field is South Asian studies are expected to fulfill the requirements of students in Philosophy, including distribution and logic requirements. With the approval of the director of graduate studies, students in Indian Philosophy may be permitted to count appropriate course in advanced Sanskrit or Tibetan toward the distribution requirement in metaphysics or epistemology and one toward the requirement in history of philosophy.

Language Requirements:

Candidates who plan to write a dissertation in Indian Philosophy are expected to have learned at least one of the relevant classical languages (Sanskrit or Tibetan) before they are admitted to the program. Depending upon the level of fluency they have reached before entering the program, they may be asked to take additional language or reading courses. In addition, candidates will be expected to satisfy the specific language requirements of their home department. The rules and procedures for the dissertation will, in general, be those established for candidates in Philosophy.

For more information please see the PhD in Indian Philosophy section .

JD/PhD in Philosophy and Law

A coordinated JD/PhD in Philosophy and Law is available. Students wishing to obtain the coordinated degrees must be admitted separately to both programs. Students admitted for the coordinated degrees must begin either with the first full year of law school or the first two years of philosophy; after that they may alternate terms as they choose. The program in Law may be completed in five terms. The requirements for philosophy are the same as for regular philosophy graduate students. For more information please see the JD/PhD Coordinated Program section .

The Master of Arts (AM) in Philosophy

The Department does not admit students for degrees other than the PhD. Students who have been admitted for the PhD and who have completed all course requirements for the degree may apply to be awarded an AM in Philosophy.

Harvard PhD students from programs (such as African and African-American Studies) which require PhD students to take courses required for an AM in another program are not required to take the first year colloquium required of Philosophy PhDs. (Students from these programs who wish to the take the colloquium must consult with the DGS.) Students from these programs who have completed 10 philosophy courses which satisfy the course requirements for a PhD and who have satisfied the distribution requirements for the PhD may apply to be awarded an AM in Philosophy.

A student who is pursuing an ad hoc degree administered in part by the Philosophy Department may petition to receive a Master of Arts degree in Philosophy. To receive this degree the student must have taken a total of 10 courses in Philosophy at the level of 100 or higher. At least two of these courses must satisfy the graduate distribution requirement in metaphysics and epistemology, two must satisfy the practical philosophy distribution requirement, two the history distribution requirement, and one must be a logic course. All must be passed with a grade of B or better. Students may receive this degree only when the Department has voted to support their petition.

Secondary Field in Philosophy

Much work in philosophy speaks directly to one or more disciplines which have Harvard PhD programs --literature, physics, statistics, science, mathematics, linguistics, and economics, to name a few. A secondary field in Philosophy gives students from other disciplines an opportunity to step back and look at the big picture in their discipline, putting students from discipline X in a position to do "philosophy of X" as part of doing X, thereby helping them both to understand their field more deeply and to open a path to developing it in innovative ways.

Graduate students may apply to the Philosophy Department to do a secondary field after their first term as a graduate student at Harvard. Secondary field students normally begin the secondary field in the second or third semester at Harvard, normally taking one or two courses a semester until they have completed the secondary field requirements.

Applicants should contact the Philosophy DGS before applying to do a secondary field in Philosophy. Applications must include: a brief statement explaining what the applicant hopes to achieve with the secondary field, including a brief summary of the applicant's background in philosophy; a copy of the undergraduate transcript (this can be a copy sent from the student's home department at Harvard) and a brief letter from a Harvard faculty member of the student's home department discussing how a secondary field in philosophy would contribute to the student's work in the home department.

To complete a secondary field in philosophy, a student completes four courses in philosophy at the 100 level or higher with a grade of B+ or better. One course must be in the area of one of the Department's PhD distribution requirements: moral and political philosophy; metaphysics and epistemology; logic; history of philosophy. A second course must be in another of these areas. At least one course must be a graduate seminar. In principle, an independent study with a member of the Department may be used to complete the secondary field. A capstone project is not required. Courses are counted towards satisfying the secondary field requirements only when approved to do so by the Philosophy DGS.

A student completing a secondary field in philosophy is assigned an advisor from the Philosophy Department, normally the DGS.

Share this page

As a PhD student in the Harvard philosophy program, you’ll have the opportunity to develop your ideas, knowledge, and abilities. You'll work with other doctoral students, our faculty, and visiting scholars, all in a stimulating and supportive environment. The program has strengths across a broad range of topics and areas, so you'll be able to pursue your interests wherever they may lead, especially in moral and political philosophy, aesthetics, epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of logic, philosophy of language, the history of analytic philosophy, ancient philosophy, Immanuel Kant, and 19th and 20th century European philosophy. 

Incoming cohorts consist of five to eight students per year. You will have substantial access to our renowned faculty and all the resources that Harvard makes available. This relatively small size also gives students a sense of intellectual community.

The curriculum is structured to help you make your way towards a dissertation: graduate-level coursework, a second-year research paper, a prospectus to help you identify a dissertation topic, and then the dissertation itself. Recent dissertations in the department have addressed a broad range of topics: Aristotle, Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau; contemporary moral and political philosophy; metaphysics; epistemology; and logic.

In addition to your research, you will also have the opportunity to develop your teaching skills in many different settings across the University.

You can find graduates of the PhD program in many universities. Recent graduates have gone on to tenure track positions at Yale University, Princeton University, Brown University, Northwestern University, Boston University, University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University, Washington University, and the University of Rochester. Other graduates have gone on to diverse careers in, among others, the arts, law, secondary education, and technology.

In addition to the standard PhD in philosophy, the department offers a PhD in classical philosophy in collaboration with the Department of the Classics and a coordinated JD/PhD program in conjunction with Harvard Law School. The department also offers a track in Indian Philosophy (administered jointly by Philosophy and South East Asian Studies.

Additional information on the graduate program is available from the Department of Philosophy and requirements for the degree are detailed in Policies .

Areas of Study

Philosophy | Classical Philosophy | Indian Philosophy 

For information please consult the Department webpage on the  graduate program overview .

Admissions Requirements

Please review the admissions requirements and other information before applying. You can find degree program specific admissions requirements below and access additional guidance on applying from the Department of Philosophy .

Academic Background

Applicants to the program in Philosophy are required to have a strong undergraduate background in philosophy (or its equivalent), indicating that they have a good grounding in the history of philosophy, as well as familiarity with contemporary work in ethics, epistemology and metaphysics, and logic.

Personal Statement

Standardized tests.

GRE General: Optional GRE Subject: Optional

Writing Sample

A writing sample is required as part of the application and should be between 12 to 30 pages long. The sample must address a substantial philosophical problem, whether it is an evaluation or presentation of an argument, or a serious attempt to interpret a difficult text. The upload of the writing sample should be formatted for 8.5-inch x 11-inch paper, 1-inch margins, with double-spaced text in a common 12-point font, such as Times New Roman.

Applicants seeking admission to the coordinated JD/PhD program must apply to and be separately admitted to Harvard Law School and the Department of Philosophy.

Theses and Dissertations

Theses & Dissertations for Philosophy

See list of Philosophy faculty

APPLICATION DEADLINE

Questions about the program.

• Utility Menu

44d3fa3df9f06a3117ed3d2ad6c71ecc

• Administration
• PhD Program

The Ph.D. Program in the Department of Economics at Harvard is addressed to students of high promise who wish to prepare themselves in teaching and research in academia or for responsible positions in government, research organizations, or business enterprises. Students are expected to devote themselves full-time to their programs of study.

The program prepares students for productive and stimulating careers as economists. Courses and seminars offered by the department foster an intellectually active and stimulating environment. Each week, the department sponsors more than 15 different seminars on such topics as environmental economics, economic growth and development, monetary and fiscal policy, international economics, industrial organization, law and economics, behavioral economics, labor economics, and economic history. Top scholars from both domestic and international communities are often invited speakers at the seminars.  The Harvard community outside of the department functions as a strong and diverse resource. Students in the department are free to pursue research interests with scholars throughout the University. Faculty of the Harvard Law School, Kennedy School of Government, and Harvard Business School, for example, are available to students for consultation, instruction, and research guidance. As a member of the Harvard community, students in the department can register for courses in the various schools and have access to the enormous library resources available through the University. There are over 90 separate library units at Harvard, with the total collections of books and pamphlets numbering over 13 million.  Both the department and the wider University draw some of the brightest students from around the world, which makes for a student body that is culturally diverse and likely unequaled in the range of intellectual interests of its members. These factors combine to add an important dimension to the educational process. Students are able to learn from one another, collaborate on research projects and publications, and form bonds that are not broken by distance once the degree is completed and professional responsibilities lead them in different directions.

• Program Requirements
• Job Placement
• Financial Support

Explore programs available at Harvard

• Utility Menu

• Program Requirements: Ph.D.

Below is an overview of degree requirements for the PhD in History of Science. The requirements may also be found in the History of Science section of the GSAS Policies web site.

Current students may also consult the HoS Graduate Program Canvas Site for information and resources.

Advising and Progress

For more information on advising expectations, please see the History of Science PhD Program Advising Best Practices Document .

The Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) serves as the primary advisor to all first-year PhD students. In addition first-year students are also strongly encouraged to seek guidance about their academic and course plans from other faculty whose research interests correspond to their own. Students are encouraged to take courses with faculty they might ask to serve on their General Examination committee.

During the second year, students are jointly advised by the DGS and the chair of the student’s General Exam Committee.

First and second-year students meet with the DGS at the start of each semester for the first two years to discuss their plan of study. Students also meet with the graduate program coordinator at the beginning of each semester, submitting a completed  History of Science Department PhD Degree Requirements Worksheet.  This is to ensure that students are fulfilling the necessary requirements.

The formal advisor during the third year is the Chair of the student’s Prospectus Committee. Upon acceptance of the Prospectus, the chair of the Dissertation Committee becomes the student’s primary advisor.

Starting in the G3 year, students and advisors both complete an annual progress report (due in April) and meet to discuss progress and academic plans. ( This form is available on the HoS Graduate Program website .) All students’ progress is reviewed each year by the department at a May faculty meeting in which a determination is made of students’ qualification for continuing graduate work in light of both departmental and GSAS requirements.

The DGS and the Department Chair are always available to provide support and advice at any stage of the graduate program. Students are encouraged to seek help from either of these individuals if any part of the advising process seems not to be working as it should.

For more information about advising procedures and resources, see the HoS Advising Timeline and the HoS Advising Best Practices documents available on the HoS Graduate Program website.

First and Second Year of Graduate Study

Students must be in residence for minimum of two years of full-time study. While in residence, students are expected to attend the department seminar.

Coursework and Research Papers

Course Requirements

Sixteen four-credit courses or the equivalent, plus a two-credit course, Colloquium on Teaching Practices, normally taken in the fall of the G3 year, including:

• Two seminars: Historiography in History of Science (HISTSCI 303A) and Research Methods in the History of Science (HISTSCI 303B)
• Four must be offered by DHS.
• At least one must focus substantially on pre-1800 topics and one must focus substantially on post-1800 topics. (See HOS Temporal Course Distribution for more details.)
• One must be taken outside DHS.
• Eight electives, of which up to five may be graduate-level reading courses in the history of science or other divisions, departments, or committees
• The Colloquium on Teaching Practices (two credits) taken in the first year of employment as a Teaching Fellow (normally the G3 year)

Note: The four graduate seminars in DHS may include courses taught in other departments by faculty in the Department of the History of Science, courses cross-listed as HISTSCI, and graduate courses in Science, Technology, and Society offered by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . (A maximum of three courses may be taken at MIT). All other courses count as outside the department. Graduate reading courses or independent studies do not fulfill the graduate seminar requirement.

Note: The department does not accept transfer credits. However, students who matriculate into the doctoral program after receiving an AM degree in History of Science or who take graduate courses as Special Students in the department are eligible to transfer up to eight four-unit courses.

Research Papers

In the first two years of graduate study, students must write two research papers, at least one for a departmental course. Papers must be between 7500 and 10,500 words (exclusive of notes and bibliography); each must earn a grade of at least A-. At least one must display serious engagement with archival or other primary sources (which may include printed and/or digital materials and objects); the other may be based on fieldwork observation (e.g., ethnographic, participant-observer) or involve media production (e.g., interactive web, audio, video/photographic, museum exhibition).

One of these essays may be an independent work not connected to a course, but it is expected that the essay will have been substantially written and researched during the course of enrollment in the PhD Program. In this case, the DGS will designate a faculty member to grade the essay.

The first paper should be submitted by 1 June of the G1 year to the Graduate Program Coordinator, CC’ing the course instructor. Ordinarily this essay is written in the context of the required Research Methods course.

The second paper should be submitted by 1 April of the G2 year to the Graduate Program Coordinator. Ordinarily this is written in the context of a departmental or external graduate seminar.

By the end of first semester of the G2 year, one of these papers should be shared and discussed with one of the student’s advisor (normally the Chair of the student’s General Exam Committee).

Grades and Assessment

Eight four-credit courses must be passed at a grade level of B or above in the first year of study.

The grade of Incomplete (INC) is given in extraordinary circumstances. The decision to give an Incomplete is at the discretion of each faculty member. Students with more than one INC on their record at the end of a semester will receive a letter of warning from the department and are at risk of being placed into “unsatisfactory status.”

GSAS policy requires that academic work must be completed, and the grade converted to a letter grade before the end of the next registration period (for example coursework for an incomplete received in the fall of 2022 must be completed before the first day of registration for the fall of 2023). A petition for an extension of time for incomplete work signed by the course instructor and director of graduate studies must be submitted to the GSAS Dean of Student Affairs Office for any course work completed after the end of the next registration period.

All courses must be graded before a student is permitted to teach. Students with outstanding course requirements (excluding the Teaching Colloquium normally taken in G3 year) are not permitted to sit for the general examination.

Language Requirement

All students must demonstrate proficiency in at least one language other than English upon submission of the dissertation prospectus in November of the G3 year (see below). The language(s) in question should reflect students’ research interests and ordinarily will be agreed on in consultation with the DGS and intended dissertation director at the beginning of the first year of graduate study; the list may be revised as necessary to reflect students’ changing intellectual trajectories. Some students may enter with all the language preparation they will need for graduate study in their chosen fields. Others may have an elementary or intermediate knowledge of a language or languages and may improve on that knowledge by taking additional coursework, including first-, second-, or third-year language courses and/or the reading courses offered by some departments, whether during the regular academic year or in summer.

Students may demonstrate proficiency in one of the following ways: 1) completing two semesters of foreign-language coursework, and receiving a grade of A- or higher in the courses; 2) completing a summer Reading Knowledge or other summer language course approved in advance by the DGS and receiving a grade of A- or higher; 3) completing upper-level coursework in a language other than English; 4) making substantial use of non-English texts in one or more seminar papers or in the preparation of general examination fields and prospectuses, or 5) passing a language exam offered by the department. Proficiency is assumed in the case of native speakers and bilingual students, as long as they are skilled in both reading and speaking.

To document proficiency, students must email the graduate program coordinator, cc’ing the advisor and the faculty member who certifies the student’s language skills; students should list the language(s) and the means by which proficiency has been demonstrated. Students taking language reading courses at Harvard Summer School or in an external institution should have a transcript sent to the graduate program coordinator.

As students’ fields of study develop, they may find that they need to acquire new languages or further develop their skills in ones they already know. This should be discussed by students and their advisors on a regular basis as part of the advising process.

Year 2: The General Examination

PhD students in the History of Science normally take the General Examination at the end of the spring semester of the G2 year. The aim of the General Examination is to deepen and expand students’ historical knowledge for the purposes of both research and teaching. It is an oral examination in three fields, each one directed by a different faculty examiner. Students are not expected to demonstrate an encyclopedic command of detail but, rather, to give evidence of understanding the main historical developments in each field, mastery of the chief historiographic traditions associated with a particular content area, and an ability to discuss particular sciences or topics within relevant historical contexts.

The three examiners constitute the student’s General Examination Committee, one of whom serves as Chair. Each field is chosen in consultation with the DGS, the Chair of the Committee, and individual Committee members. Two fields should be directed by faculty in the Department of the History of Science (or in certain cases by faculty approved by the department to direct a field related to the history of science, technology, or medicine). One field should be directed by a faculty member outside the Department, and students should consult carefully with the DGS and their intended Chair about the scope of that field and who might be asked to direct it. Occasionally, a single field may be split into two subfields, each of which is directed by a distinct faculty member.

Once the student has agreed with each Committee member about the title of their field, and the Chair of the Committee has approved all of them, students should submit the General Examination Application and a completed PhD Degree Requirements Worksheet  to the Graduate Program Coordinator. This should happen by early November of the G2 year. These applications are reviewed and then voted on by Department faculty at the following Faculty Meeting.

During the G2 year, students normally enroll in a directed reading course (HSCI 3001) with each of the directors of their three fields during either the Fall or Spring semester. Preparation for the exam may take place in the fall or spring, or it may extend over both semesters. In any case, preparation should involve at least seven meetings between student and faculty member. At the beginning of preparation for each field, the student and director of each field will agree on a set of texts that constitutes the Reading List for that field. This list may be revised over the course of preparation in consultation with the Director of each field.

Early in the spring semester it is the student’s responsibility to coordinate with their General Examination Committee to determine the date and time of the exam. The Examination should be scheduled for two hours: 90 minutes for the exam itself and 30 minutes for the Committee to review the exam and discuss the result with the student. Once the date and time have been determined, the student should inform the Graduate Coordinator who will secure a room and add it to the schedule.

General Examination Applications will normally only be considered once students have completed all required coursework from the G1 year (and have no outstanding Incomplete grades). Moreover, at the time of the exam itself, students should have completed (or should be actively enrolled in) all required coursework for the degree. A rising G3 student who has not passed the General Examination will be allowed one semester in which to complete any outstanding course and writing requirements as well as to sit for and pass the examination. The department may ask students who have not completed this process and passed the Examination by the end of the first semester of the G3 year to withdraw from the Program.

For more information about General Examination Fields and the exam itself, consult the HoS General Examination Procedures document available on the HoS Graduate Program website.

Third Year of Graduate Study

All students are required by the department to participate as teaching fellows or course assistants in at least one course offered by department faculty. Students may not teach during the DCF year and so should plan accordingly. All students are required to complete the Colloquium on Teaching Practices (two credits) offered in the fall of the first year that they teach in the Department, with opportunities for additional sessions in the spring.

Rising G3 students must attend the fall Bok Center Teaching Retreat as well as the department teaching retreat held in late August/early September. The Bok Center offers numerous teaching workshops and resources to enable teaching fellows to hone their teaching skills.

Faculty course instructors hold weekly meetings with teaching fellows to guide them in leading discussion sections and grading assignments and exams.

The Dissertation Prospectus

Students are expected to begin preparing to write their prospectus following the completion of their General Examination at the end of the G2 year. To help facilitate this process, the Department normally holds two “Prospectus Study Days” (in late May and early September).

During the summer or early in the Fall term, students will assemble a Prospectus Committee in consultation with their General Examination Committee Chair, presumptive Primary Advisor, and/or the DGS. The Prospectus Committee normally consists of three faculty members, of which one is the Chair. (While Dissertation Committees may have more than three members, the Prospectus Committee is made up of exactly three members except in exceptional circumstances.) At least two members of this Committee should be members of the Department. Students are encouraged to include junior faculty on their Dissertation Committees.

Over the course of the G3 year's fall semester, students develop a draft of their prospectus in consultation with their Prospectus Committee, which will approve its submission to the department faculty as a whole. Prospectuses are to be submitted to the graduate program coordinator at least one week before the December history of science faculty meeting (usually, by the Thanksgiving break). The faculty discuss prospectuses at this meeting and vote on their approval.

Students are expected to submit their prospectuses in the fall of the G3 year; in all cases, however, approval must be obtained before the end of the G3 year.

After obtaining faculty approval, students present their prospectuses to the history of science community in a department seminar, usually in the spring of the G3 year.

For more information about the prospectus process and requirements consult the Dissertation Prospectus Guidelines Document .

Fellowship Applications

Third Year students often apply for traveling and research fellowships beginning in the late fall of the G3 year as well as other external and internal fellowships. Please see the HoS Graduate Program website for further information. Department Faculty and the GSAS Fellowships Office  offer workshops to assist students in the application process.

Progress Report

Beginning in the G3 year, students and advisors together complete an end-of-the-year Progress Report  which is submitted to the graduate coordinator in April .

Post-prospectus

Annual  Progress Reports   are due in April each year following acceptance of the Dissertation Prospectus.

The Dissertation

Once the student’s Prospectus has been approved by the department, a Dissertation Committee is formed. Normally, the chair of the Prospectus Committee becomes the chair of the Dissertation Committee and the student’s primary advisor. The chair of the Dissertation Committee must be an eligible member of the department, as must at least one other member of the committee. (The names of faculty members available for the direction of the PhD dissertation are listed in the course catalog under History of Science 3000.) Students are encouraged to include junior faculty on their committees.

Timetable for submission of the dissertation

Students planning to graduate in March, May, or November, should meet with the graduate program coordinator to review the graduation process. Students need to provide the coordinator with vital information to ensure the dissertation acceptance certificate may be processed to meet GSAS deadlines and the degree application approved.

Students must submit a final, complete draft of the dissertation to their committees no later than six weeks prior to the “dissertations are due on” date specified by GSAS. All students must submit a pdf of the submitted dissertation with the signed dissertation acceptance certificate to the graduate coordinator.

Committees will read and comment on the dissertation draft, and ask for any revisions, no later than three weeks prior to the same date.

Students will make any necessary changes and submit the dissertation in its final form to the committee and to the department no later than one week prior to the “due on” date.

The dissertation should be an original contribution to knowledge. It must conform to the online description, Formatting your Dissertation , on the GSAS Policies website.

Dissertation Defense

The dissertation defense in History of Science ordinarily takes place after the members of the Dissertation Committee have approved the dissertation. The dissertation defense is not required to receive the doctoral degree, but students often find the forum useful as they further their research. The Graduate Program Coordinator will assist students in setting a defense date.

Duration of Study

Work for the degree should be completed within a total of six years. Normally, students take a Dissertation Completion Fellowship during the year that they complete the dissertation. However, in cases in which the dissertation is not completed, the Graduate School permits students to remain enrolled in the PhD Program for one year following the Dissertation Completion Fellowship year. An extension beyond this one-year limit may be considered by the Department and the Graduate School in extraordinary circumstances.

Please contact the Graduate Program Coordinator (Linda Schneider) at [email protected] or 617-495-9978.

• Undergraduate Program
• Graduate Admissions
• Teaching Innovation
• Program Requirements: A.M.
• Funding Overview
• University Resources
• Professional Resources
• Working Groups, 2023 / 2024
• Secondary Field in History of Science

• Utility Menu

Psychology Graduate Program

• Psychology Department

The Clinical Psychology Program adheres to a clinical science model of training, and is a member of the Academy of Psychological Clinical Science.  We are committed to training clinical psychologists whose research advances scientific knowledge of psychopathology and its treatment, and who are capable of applying evidence-based methods of assessment and clinical intervention. The main emphasis of the program is research, especially on severe psychopathology. The program includes research, course work, and clinical practica, and usually takes five years to complete. Students typically complete assessment and treatment practica during their second and third years in the program, and they must fulfill all departmental requirements prior to beginning their one-year internship. The curriculum meets the requirements for licensure in Massachusetts, accreditation requirements of the American Psychological Association (APA; Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation, American Psychological Association, 750 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002-4242, [email protected] , Tel. [202] 336-5979), and accreditation requirements of the Psychological Clinical Science Accreditation System (PCSAS). PCSAS re-accredited the program on December 15, 2022 for a 10-year term. APA most recently accredited the program on April 28, 2015 for a seven-year term, which was extended due to COVID-related delays. 

Requirements

Required courses and training experiences fulfill requirements for clinical psychology licensure in Massachusetts as well as meet APA criteria for the accreditation of clinical psychology programs.  In addition to these courses, further training experiences are required in accordance with the American Psychological Association’s guidelines for the accreditation of clinical psychology programs (e.g., clinical practica [e.g., PSY 3050 Clinical Practicum, PSY 3080 Practicum in Neuropsychological Assessment]; clinical internship).

Students in the clinical psychology program are required to take the following courses:

• PSY 3900 Professional Ethics
• PSY 2445 Psychotherapy Research
• PSY 2070 Psychometric Theory and Method Using R
• PSY 2430 Cultural, Racial, and Ethnic Bases of Behavior
• PSY 3250 Psychological Testing
• PSY 2050 History of Psychology
• PSY 1951 Intermediate Quantitative Methods
• PSY 1952 Multivariate Analysis in Psychology
• PSY 2040 Contemporary Topics in Psychopathology
• PSY 2460 Diagnostic Interviewing
• PSY 2420 Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Psychological Disorders

Clinical students must also take one course in each of the following substantive areas: biological bases of behavior (e.g., PSY 1202 Modern Neuroanatomy; PSY 1325 The Emotional, Social Brain; PSY 1355 The Adolescent Brain; PSY 1702 The Emotional Mind); social bases of behavior (e.g., PSY 2500 Proseminar in Social Psychology); cognitive-affective bases of behavior (e.g., PSY 2400 Cognitive Psychology and Emotional Disorders); and individual differences (Required course PSY 2040 Contemporary Topics in Psychopathology fulfills the individual differences requirement for Massachusetts licensure). In accordance with American Psychological Association guidelines for the accreditation of clinical psychology programs, clinical students also receive consultation and supervision within the context of clinical practica in psychological assessment and treatment beginning in their second semester of their first year and running through their third year. They receive further exposure to additional topics (e.g., human development) in the Developmental Psychopathology seminar and in the twice-monthly clinical psychology “brown bag” speaker series. Finally, students complete a year-long clinical internship. Students are responsible for making sure that they take courses in all the relevant and required areas listed above. Students wishing to substitute one required course for another should seek advice from their advisor and from the director of clinical training prior to registering. During the first year, students are advised to get in as many requirements as possible. Many requirements can be completed before the deadlines stated below. First-year project:  Under the guidance of a faculty member who serves as a mentor, students participate in a research project and write a formal report on their research progress. Due by May of first year. Second-year project:  Original research project leading to a written report in the style of an APA journal article. A ten-minute oral presentation is also required. Due by May of second year. General exam:  A six-hour exam covering the literature of the field. To be taken in September before the start of the third year. Thesis prospectus:  A written description of the research proposed must be approved by a prospectus committee appointed by the CHD. Due at the beginning of the fourth year. Thesis and oral defense:  Ordinarily this would be completed by the end of the fourth year. Clinical internship:  Ordinarily this would occur in the fifth year. Students must have completed their thesis research prior to going on internship.

Credit for Prior Graduate Work

 A PhD student who has completed at least one full term of satisfactory work in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences may file an application at the Registrar’s Office requesting that work done in a graduate program elsewhere be counted toward the academic residence requirement. Forms are available  online .

No more than the equivalent of eight half-courses may be so counted for the PhD.

An application for academic credit for work done elsewhere must contain a list of the courses, with grades, for which the student is seeking credit, and must be approved by the student’s department. In order for credit to be granted, official transcripts showing the courses for which credit is sought must be submitted to the registrar, unless they are already on file with the Graduate School. No guarantee is given in advance that such an application will be granted. 

Only courses taken in a Harvard AB-AM or AB-SM program, in Harvard Summer School, as a GSAS Special Student or FAS courses taken as an employee under the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) may be counted toward the minimum academic residence requirements for a Master’s degree.

Academic and financial credit for courses taken as a GSAS Special Student or FAS courses taken as a Harvard employee prior to admission to a degree program may be granted for a maximum of four half-courses toward a one-year Master’s and eight half-courses toward a two-year Master’s or the PhD degree.

Applications for academic and financial credit must be approved by the student’s department and should then be submitted to the Registrar’s Office.

Student Admissions, Outcomes, and other data  

1. Time to Completion

Students can petition the program faculty to receive credit for prior graduate coursework, but it does not markedly reduce their expected time to complete the program.

2. Program Costs

3. Internships 

4. Attrition

5. Licensure

Standard Financial Aid Award, Students Entering 2023  

The financial aid package for Ph.D. students entering in 2023 will include tuition and health fees support for years one through four, or five, if needed; stipend support in years one and two; a summer research grant equal to two months stipend at the end of years one through four; teaching fellowship support in years three and four guaranteed by the Psychology Department; and a dissertation completion grant consisting of tuition and stipend support in the appropriate year. Typically students will not be allowed to teach while receiving a stipend in years one and two or during the dissertation completion year.    

Year 1 (2023-24) and Year 2 (2024- 25)  Tuition & Health Fees:                             Paid in Full  Academic Year Stipend:                           $35,700 (10 months)  Summer Research Award:                       $7,140 (2 months)

Year 3 (2025-26) & Year 4 (2026- 27) Tuition & Health Fees:                             Paid in Full Living Expenses:                                       $35,700 (Teaching Fellowship plus supplement, if eligible)  Summer Research Award:                       $7,140 (2 months)

Year 5 (2027-28) - if needed; may not be taken after the Dissertation Completion year Tuition & Health Fees:                             Paid in Full

Dissertation Completion Year (normally year 5, occasionally year 6) Tuition & Health Fees:                             Paid in Full  Stipend for Living Expenses:                    $35,700  

The academic year stipend is for the ten-month period September through June. The first stipend payment will be made available at the start of the fall term with subsequent disbursements on the first of each month. The summer research award is intended for use in July and August following the first four academic years.

In the third and fourth years, the guaranteed income of $35,700 includes four sections of teaching and, if necessary, a small supplement from the Graduate School. Your teaching fellowship is guaranteed by the Department provided you have passed the General Examination or equivalent and met any other department criteria. Students are required to take a teacher training course in the first year of teaching.

The dissertation completion year fellowship will be available as soon as you are prepared to finish your dissertation, ordinarily in the fifth year. Applications for the completion fellowship must be submitted in February of the year prior to utilizing the award. Dissertation completion fellowships are not guaranteed after the seventh year. Please note that registration in the Graduate School is always subject to your maintaining satisfactory progress toward the degree.

GSAS students are strongly encouraged to apply for appropriate Harvard and outside fellowships throughout their enrollment. All students who receive funds from an outside source are expected to accept the award in place of the above Harvard award. In such cases, students may be eligible to receive a GSAS award of up to $4,000 for each academic year of external funding secured or defer up to one year of GSAS stipend support.

For additional information, please refer to the Financial Support section of the GSAS website ( gsas.harvard.edu/financial-support ).

Registration and Financial Aid in the Graduate School are always subject to maintaining satisfactory progress toward the degree.

Psychology students are eligible to apply for generous research and travel grants from the Department.

The figures quoted above are estimates provided by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and are subject to change.

Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation American Psychological Association 750 First Street, NE Washington, DC 20002 Phone: (202) 336-5979 E-mail:  [email protected]   www.apa.org/ed/accreditation

The Director of Clinical Training is Prof. Richard J. McNally who can be reached by telephone at (617) 495-3853 or via e-mail at:  [email protected] . 

• Clinical Internship Allowance

Harvard Clinical Psychology Student Handbook

CS PhD Course Guidelines

The following program guidelines (a.k.a model pogram) serve as a starting point for a discussion with the faculty about areas of interest.   This description of the Computer Science PhD course guidelines augments the school-wide  PhD course requirements .   Students should make themselves familiar with both.

Course Guidelines for Ph.D. Students in Computer Science

We expect students to obtain broad knowledge of computer science by taking graduate level courses in a variety of sub-areas in computer science, such as systems, networking, databases, algorithms, complexity, hardware, human-computer interaction, graphics, or programming languages.

Within our school, CS courses are roughly organized according to sub-area by their middle digit, so we expect students to take courses in a minimum of three distinct sub-areas, one of which should be theory (denoted by the middle digit of 2, or CS 231). Theory is specifically required as we expect all students to obtain some background in the mathematical foundations that underlie computer science. The intention is not only to give breadth to students, but to ensure cross-fertilization across different sub-disciplines in Computer Science.

Just as we expect all students obtaining a Ph.D. to have experience with the theoretical foundations of computer science, we expect all students to have some knowledge of how to build large software or hardware systems , on the order of thousands of lines of code, or the equivalent complexity in hardware. That experience may be evidenced by coursework or by a project submitted to the CHD for examination. In almost all cases a course numbered CS 26x or CS 24x will satisfy the requirement (exceptions will be noted in the course description on my.harvard). Students may also petition to use CS 161 for this requirement.   For projects in other courses, research projects, or projects done in internships the student is expected to write a note explaining the project, include a link to any relevant artifacts or outcomes, describe the student's individual contribution, and where appropriate obtain a note from their advisor, their class instructor, or their supervisors confirming their contributions.  The project must include learning about systems concepts, and not just writing many lines of code.   Students hoping to invoke the non-CS24x/26x/161 option must consult with  Prof. Mickens ,  Prof, Kung,  or  Prof. Idreos  well in advance of submitting their Program Plan to the CHD.  

Computer science is an applied science, with connections to many fields. Learning about and connecting computer science to other fields is a key part of an advanced education in computer science. These connections may introduce relevant background, or they may provide an outlet for developing new applications.

For example, mathematics courses may be appropriate for someone working in theory, linguistics courses may be appropriate for someone working in computational linguistics, economics courses may be appropriate for those working in algorithmic economics, electrical engineering courses may be appropriate for those working in circuit design, and design courses may be appropriate for someone working in user interfaces.

Requirements

The Graduate School of Arts & Sciences (GSAS) requires all Ph.D. students to complete 16 half-courses (“courses”, i.e., for 4 units of credit) to complete their degree. Of those 16 courses, a Ph.D. in Computer Science requires 10 letter-graded courses. (The remaining 6 courses are often 300-level research courses or other undergraduate or graduate coursework beyond the 10 required courses.)

The requirements for the 10 letter-graded courses are as follows:

• Of the 7 technical courses, at least 3 must be 200-level Computer Science courses, with 3 different middle digits (from the set 2,3,4,5,6,7,8), and with one of these three courses either having a middle digit of 2 or being CS 231 (i.e., a “theory” course).   Note that CS courses with a middle digit of 0 are valid technical courses, but do not contribute to the breadth requirement.
• At least 5 of the 8 disciplinary courses must be SEAS or SEAS-equivalent 200-level courses. A “SEAS equivalent” course is a course taught by a SEAS faculty member in another FAS department. 
• For any MIT course taken, the student must provide justification why the MIT course is necessary (i.e. SEAS does not offer the topic, the SEAS course has not been offered in recent years, etc.). MIT courses do not count as part of the 5 200-level SEAS/SEAS-equivalent courses. 
• 2 of the 10 courses must constitute an external minor (referred to as "breadth" courses in the SEAS “ Policies of the Committee on Higher Degrees [CHD] ”) in an area outside of computer science. These courses should be clearly related; generally, this will mean the two courses are in the same discipline, although this is not mandatory. These courses must be distinct from the 8 disciplinary courses referenced above.
• Students must demonstrate practical competence by building a large software or hardware system during the course of their graduate studies. This requirement will generally be met through a class project, but it can also be met through work done in the course of a summer internship, or in the course of research.
• In particular, for Computer Science graduate degrees, Applied Computation courses may be counted as 100-level courses, not 200-level courses.
• Up to 2 of the 10 courses can be 299r courses, but only 1 of the up to 2 allowed 299r courses can count toward the 8 disciplinary courses. 299r courses do not count toward the 5 200-level SEAS/SEAS-equivalent courses. If two 299r’s are taken, they can be with the same faculty but the topics must be sufficiently different.
• A maximum of 3 graduate-level transfer classes are allowed to count towards the 10 course requirement.
• All CS Ph.D. program plans must adhere to the SEAS-wide Ph.D. requirements, which are stated in the SEAS Policies of the Committee on Higher Degrees (CHD) . These SEAS-wide requirements are included in the items listed above, though students are encouraged to read the CHD document if there are questions, as the CHD document provides further explanation/detail on several of the items above.
• All program plans must be approved by the CHD. Exceptions to any of these requirements require a detailed written explanation of the reasoning for the exception from the student and the student’s research advisor. Exceptions can only be approved by the CHD, and generally exceptions will only be given for unusual circumstances specific to the student’s research program.

Requirement Notes

• Courses below the 100-level are not suitable for graduate credit.
• For students who were required to take it, CS 2091/2092 (formerly CS 290a/b or 290hfa/hfb may be included as one of the 10 courses but it does not count toward the 200-level CS or SEAS/SEAS-equivalent course requirements nor toward the SM en route to the PhD.

Your program plan  must always comply  with both our school's General Requirements, in addition to complying with the specific requirements for Computer Science. All program plans must be approved by the Committee on Higher Degrees [CHD]. Exceptions to the requirements can only be approved by the CHD, and generally will only be given for unusual circumstances specific to the student’s research program

In Computer Science

• First-Year Exploration
• Concentration Information
• Secondary Field
• Senior Thesis
• AB/SM Information
• Student Organizations
• How to Apply
• PhD Timeline
• PhD Course Requirements
• Qualifying Exam
• Committee Meetings (Review Days)
• Committee on Higher Degrees
• Research Interest Comparison
• Collaborations
• Cross-Harvard Engagement
• Lecture Series
• Clubs & Organizations
• Centers & Initiatives
• Alumni Stories

• Utility Menu

GA4 Tracking Code - DO NOT REMOVE

Site name and logo, harvard divinity school.

• Prospective Students
• Give to HDS
• PhD Program

The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) program is jointly offered by HDS and the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Find detailed information about PhD fields of study and program requirements on the Committee on the Study of Religion website.

With a focus on global religions, religion and culture, and forces that shape religious traditions and thought, the PhD prepares students for advanced research and scholarship in religion and theological studies. 

Resources for the study of religion at Harvard are vast. We offer courses in the whole range of religious traditions from the ancient Zoroastrian tradition to modern Christian liberation movements, Islamic and Jewish philosophies, Buddhist social movements, and Hindu arts and culture. Some of us work primarily as historians, others as scholars of texts, others as anthropologists, although the boundaries of these methodologies are never firm. Some of us are adherents of a religious tradition; others are not at all religious. The Study of Religion is exciting and challenging precisely because of the conversations that take place across the complexities of disciplines, traditions, and intellectual commitments.

• Master of Divinity (MDiv) Program
• Master of Religion and Public Life (MRPL) Program
• Master of Theological Studies (MTS) Program
• Master of Theology (ThM) Program
• Dual Degrees
• Nondegree Programs
• Ministry Studies
• Professional and Lifelong Learning
• Finding Courses
• Academic Advising

Doctoral Program

Phd in biostatistics.

The PhD program is designed for those who have demonstrated both interest and ability in scholarly research. The department’s program is designed to prepare students for careers in the theory and practice of biostatistics and bioinformatics, and includes training in the development of methodology, consulting, teaching, and collaboration on a broad spectrum of problems related to human health, genomics, and basic biology.

Download the Biostatistics Doctoral Student Handbook  for more information on the doctoral program, and  download the Biostatistics Master’s Student Handbook  for more information on the Masters’ programs.

The overall goal of the Ph.D. program in Biostatistics is to prepare individuals to become leaders in the field through the achievement of six competencies:

• Discuss and apply a foundational knowledge base in probability, biostatistical theory, and computation to conduct collaborative and methodologic research.
• Synthesize established and recently-developed knowledge in probability, biostatistical theory, computation methods, and in public health, clinical and biological sciences.
• Teach statistical theory or methodology at multiple levels.
• Design and develop grants or proposals towards obtaining funding/resources for future research activities.
• Collaborate and communicate effectively with research scientists in related disciplines.
• Develop, implement and disseminate novel biostatistical or bioinformatics methodology to address outstanding questions in public health, clinical and biological science.

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

All candidates for admission to the ph.d. programs  must have :.

• Successfully completed calculus through multivariable integration and one semester of linear algebra
• Knowledge of a programming language

All candidates for admission to the Ph.D. programs  are  encouraged to have :

• Completed courses in: probability, statistics, advanced calculus or real analysis, and numerical analysis
• Practical knowledge of a statistical computing package such as SAS, R, Stata, or Python
• Have completed courses in biology, computational biology, and genetics, if interested in bioinformatics
• Knowledge of a scripting language such as Python or Perl and some familiarity with relational databases, if interested in bioinformatics

On rare occasions the Department will admit students to our programs without this level of preparation with the understanding that the student will promptly make up any deficiencies, usually by taking additional courses prior to entering the program.

We provide full financial support (stipend/salary, tuition and health insurance) to all doctoral students in good standing for 5 years. This support comes from a variety of sources, including:

• NIH training and research grants
• Teaching fellowships
• Competitive  Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health  &  Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences  scholarships

We also encourage doctoral students to apply for outside funding during their senior year of undergraduate study, such as NSF and NDSEG fellowships, which often award stipends larger than those provided by the Department.  Foreign applicants may be eligible for funding from Harvard-related sources based in their home country as well.

Harvard University does not discriminate against applicants or students on the basis of race, color, national origin, ancestry or any other protected classification.

News from the School

Red meat and diabetes

How for-profit medicine is harming health care

A tradition of mentoring

Promising HIV treatment

Doctor of Design Admissions

The admissions process for the DDes program is extremely competitive and requires that applicants hold a graduate level degree in a design related field such as a professional degree in architecture, landscape architecture, planning or urban design. Applicants with a degree in a related discipline such as engineering, geography, computer science, or industrial design also qualify for admission. Applicants are required to present a concise and clearly articulated research proposal as the core element of the application. Other critical elements include documentation of the academic record, a curriculum vitae including professional experience, the portfolio, and letters of recommendation. For non-native speakers, recent TOEFL scores are required. UPDATE : For the 2023 admissions cycle, the GRE requirement is waived. The GRE is not required for the 2023 application and will not be included in the review process for these programs. At this time, the change to the GRE requirement is for the 2023 application season only.

The program seeks applicants who have demonstrated research and analytical skills essential for advanced doctoral study as well as the ability to pursue such work independently. Applicants should submit a proposal describing the research in which they plan to engage during their studies. The proposal will be evaluated on (1) its promise for original contribution to the design professions, (2) the feasibility of its being completed within the time constraints of the program, and (3) its congruence with research interests of at least two GSD faculty members who will eventually serve on the thesis committee.

Portfolio Requirement

The portfolio for DDes applicants should consist of scholarly, academic and/or professional work and may or may not include visual material, at the discretion of the applicant and as related to the proposed research topic.

DDes students receive financial support and teaching fellowships from the GSD to cover a major part of their tuition. Additional support may be available through funded research and other resources at the school.

For more information, please contact the Admissions Office .

MPP or MPA: Which program is right for you?

By Katie Kelsall, Assistant Director of Admissions and Financial Aid

Harvard Kennedy School offers four master’s degree programs for students interested in fulfilling our mission to improve public policy and leadership so people can live in societies that are more safe, free, just, and sustainably prosperous. 

• Master in Public Policy (MPP)
• Master in Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ID)
• Master in Public Administration (MPA)
• Mid-Career Master in Public Administration (MC/MPA) 

It is often easy for prospective students to determine whether the MC/MPA or MPA/ID aligns well with their interests and backgrounds, but differentiating between the MPP and MPA can be more complicated. When meeting with prospective students, we are often asked, “What is the difference between an MPP and an MPA? Why should I choose one over the other?”

While both programs are valuable for anyone interested in a career public service, there are several key differences. When comparing our MPP and MPA Programs, prospective students should keep the following components in mind.

Admissions Criteria & Prerequisites 

Both the MPA and MPP Programs require students to have a bachelor’s degree with a strong academic background. 

Students may apply to the MPP without work experience or graduate-level coursework. 

Conversely, students must fulfill additional degree program prerequisites to be eligible for admission to the MPA Program. These prerequisites include three years of professional work experience and at least four graduate-level courses similar to those in the MPP core curriculum . In fact, many MPA students come in with another graduate degree such as an MBA or as concurrent degree students . Given the MPA Program’s flexible curriculum (covered more in the next section), we want to ensure that students entering the program are prepared to succeed in a rigorous academic environment from day one.

Curriculum 

The MPP Program has a structured core curriculum designed to develop students’ skills in economics, financial management, policy design and delivery, quantitative analysis, and more. This core curriculum equips students to analyze complex public problems and craft concrete policy solutions.  

On the other hand, the MPA curriculum is much more flexible, allowing students to focus on their policy interests from the beginning of their graduate program. MPA students often take courses focused on leadership and management, though MPA students can choose from a range of disciplines and study under virtually any HKS faculty member .  

Career Outcomes 

There is some similarity in the roles that MPP and MPA graduates secure after graduation, but there are a few areas of differentiation. 

The majority of MPPs apply their core training, policy interests, and functional skills to roles and organizations in the public and nonprofit sectors following graduation. MPP graduates are equipped to analyze public problems and craft concrete policy solutions—you’ll see from the list of common job titles in the chart below that many MPP graduates take on jobs focused on policy analysis. 

Because MPA students are required to have work experience prior to enrolling, many MPA graduates secure significant leadership roles after graduating. In general, more MPA graduates enter the private sector due to the program’s many concurrent degree students. Many MPA graduates are also social entrepreneurs—in the Class of 2023, 11 MPA graduates started their own ventures after graduation. 

At a Glance: Comparing the MPP and MPA Programs

Ultimately, the decision to pursue an MPP or MPA depends on your personal background, preferences, and goals. Prospective applicants should be aware that it is only possible to apply to one master’s program per application cycle, so determining the right program for you is important from the beginning of the application process. 

Interested in learning more? Register for an upcoming admissions event.

In her role as Assistant Director of Admissions and Financial Aid, Katie Kelsall advises prospective and current MPP students on matters related to admissions and financial aid. 

MPA/ID Coffee Hours: Conversations between current and prospective students in New Delhi, India

By Katie Chen MPA/ID 2025 and Prince Dhawan MPA/ID 2025

• Contributors

Post-Doctoral and Graduate Corporate Governance Fellowships

The Program on Corporate Governance at Harvard Law School (HLS) is pleased to announce that it is seeking applications from highly qualified candidates who are interested in working with the Program as Post-Doctoral or Doctoral Corporate Governance Fellows.

Applications are considered on a rolling basis, and the start date is flexible and can be negotiated based on applicant and Program needs. Appointments are commonly for one year, but the appointment period can be extended for additional one-year period/s contingent on business and funding.

Candidates should have a law degree from a law school in the United States or abroad. Candidates still pursuing a doctoral degree are eligible so long as they will have completed their program’s coursework requirements by the time they begin their fellowship period.

During the term of their appointment, Fellows will be in residence at HLS and will be required to work on research and other activities of the Program, depending on their skills, interests, and Program needs. The position includes a competitive fellowship salary and Harvard University benefits. Fellows will also be able to spend time on their own projects.

Applicants should have an interest in corporate governance and in academic or policy research in this field. Former Fellows of the Program currently teach in many leading law schools in the U.S. and abroad (e.g., Scott Hirst (BU), Robert Jackson (NYU), Marcel Kahan (NYU), Kobi Kastiel (Tel-Aviv), Yaron Nili (Duke), Roberto Tallarita (Harvard) and Holger Spamann (Harvard)).

Interested candidates should submit a CV, a writing sample, and a cover letter to the coordinator of the Program, at [email protected] . The cover letter should describe the candidate’s experience, reasons for seeking the position, career plans, and the period during which they would like to work with the Program.

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

Supported By:

Subscribe or Follow

Program on corporate governance advisory board.

• William Ackman
• Peter Atkins
• Kerry E. Berchem
• Richard Brand
• Daniel Burch
• Arthur B. Crozier
• Renata J. Ferrari
• John Finley
• Carolyn Frantz
• Andrew Freedman
• Byron Georgiou
• Joseph Hall
• Jason M. Halper
• David Millstone
• Theodore Mirvis
• Maria Moats
• Erika Moore
• Morton Pierce
• Philip Richter
• Elina Tetelbaum
• Marc Trevino
• Steven J. Williams
• Daniel Wolf

HLS Faculty & Senior Fellows

• Lucian Bebchuk
• Robert Clark
• John Coates
• Stephen M. Davis
• Allen Ferrell
• Jesse Fried
• Oliver Hart
• Howell Jackson
• Kobi Kastiel
• Reinier Kraakman
• Mark Ramseyer
• Robert Sitkoff
• Holger Spamann
• Leo E. Strine, Jr.
• Guhan Subramanian
• Roberto Tallarita

SILVERLINE: A New Model for Data Centers in the Age of AI: Verticalities at the Edge of the Cloud

by Ben Parker (MAUD ’24), Christopher Oh (MAUD ’24), Ziyang Dong (MArch ’25), Jasmine Ibrahim (MRE ’25) — Recipients of the Plimpton-Poorvu Design Prize , First Prize.

Data centers underlie all the most important technological developments of the past three decades, and emerging innovations like generative AI rely even more heavily on the remote storage and computing that data centers provide. Yet for all their transformative impact, data centers are remarkably conventional buildings. The typical model of data center development holds the same pitfalls and consequences of most construction: degraded water quality, habitat destruction, car dependence, failing power grids, unchecked sprawl, visual monotony, increasing wealth disparity, and accelerated climate change. This need not be the case.

Silverline: Positive Potential at the Edge of the Cloud

As a design-driven real estate startup, we bring to data center buildings all the transformative aspiration that technologists bring to the servers within it. We propose a new model of data center development that preserves land, minimizes fossil fuel emissions, respects cultural context, and invests in disadvantaged communities, all within an attractively profitable financial model made possible through a new product type.

Silverline Edge-Colo data centers are medium-sized, 8-28 megawatt data centers that support low latency applications. They utilize a series of technological innovations to bring increased energy efficiency and better price-to-performance compared to traditional data centers. Immersion cooling and robotic operations reduce MEP costs through minimizing building HVAC and lighting requirements, resulting in competitive construction costs and hyper efficient power use (PUE). A system of nested modularity creates economies of scale and connects into an integrated system that starts with the microchip. This uninterrupted modularity, from chip to server to rack to building, creates the possibility of streamlined procurement, cutting construction time to further save on cost. Finally, biomethane fuel cells replace diesel fuel as the power source for the data center’s backup generators, a significant sustainability improvement.

Silverline’s Thin, Vertical Typology Addresses Land Constraint Issues

The data center industry has made great strides in power use efficiency and renewable fuels but has yet to consider land as a sustainability issue. In contrast to the traditional, land-hungry approach, Silverline proposes a vertical model: each data center tower holds 4-24 levels of server racks with mechanical equipment above and below. In urban areas where land is expensive and parcels can be small or unusually shaped, this provides more flexibility to locate near customers. In rural areas, where agricultural and ecological land preservation is a core issue, a tower solution disturbs less land and can minimize regulatory hurdles regarding zoning changes.

Colo-Edge Data Centers: Digital Proximity is the New Industry Buzzword

The proliferation of low latent technologies involving AI has become a strong tailwind for building urban data centers. The benefits of locating close to the end consumers of data outweigh the construction premium, which is absorbed via higher rents charged to tenants. Investment grade cloud providers like Google and Amazon are willing to pay a premium to be closer to the end consumer and ensure high customer retention.

Blue Ocean Strategy: First Mover Advantage in a High Growth Market

Digital consumers and businesses are pushing data closer to end users, where industry research has noted higher growth rates compared to the established “hyperscale” in the mid-to-long term. Despite this demand for expanding edge infrastructure, cloud providers are deterred by the high barriers to entry in securing downtown land and seeking permitting approval for data center development from the local authorities in both urban and rural locations.

Bridging the Digital Divide with Decentralized Colo-Edge Data Centers

Access disparity between urban and rural internet users remains an important issue for digital infrastructure. As an incentive for local governments to lease land in dense urban cores for data center developments, Silverline will cross-subsidize data centers for underserved rural populations, allowing these communities to access high speed internet. Rural data centers also support 5G connection, an infrastructure upgrade that would increase demand density in rural areas to achieve competitive market rents in the near future.

Modular Core, Adaptive Shell: Contextualizing an Anonymous Box

Local public opposition has halted recent data center projects in Ireland, the US and other countries, with moratoriums on some data center construction in Singapore and the Netherlands. Such community concerns have the industry rethinking its traditional approach to data centers as large, anonymous, unidentifiable boxes. With each data tower, Silverline pairs a modular core with a contextually adaptive shell that incorporates aesthetic and ecological considerations. The core is identical in every project, while the shell is the product of local architectural competitions sponsored by Silverline. The core holds all of the technological components of the building, while the shell addresses outward considerations of structure, façade, circulation, and how the building meets the ground. This opens a dialog between infrastructure and design that could manage the tension between ubiquitous use of the cloud and a similarly ubiquitous opposition to its physical presence.

To test Silverline’s globally adaptable core + shell strategy, we will first develop Silverline in paired urban/rural locations in Ireland, a strong market with mature planning practices and significant sustainable power. We then envision a scenario in Malaysia, a leading growth market with starkly different environmental, cultural, and regulatory conditions. Silverline would then continue expanding globally as the product is tested and refined.

• Harnessing The Future; How the Internet’s Digital Infrastructure Influences the Global Landscape

• This is Broad Learn about our mission, our values, our history, and partner institutions.
• People Meet our members, staff scientists, fellows, leadership, and other Broadies.
• Join Broad Find out how to join the Broad as an employee or associate member.
• Contact us Find our contact information, directions to our buildings, and directory.
• Broad@20 Broad turns 20 this year! See how we’re celebrating our 20th anniversary.
• Cardiovascular disease
• Brain Health
• Infectious disease and microbiome
• Kidney disease
• Rare disease
• Chemical biology and therapeutics science
• Drug discovery
• Genome regulation, cellular circuitry, and epigenomics
• Medical and population genetics
• Data sciences
• Genetic perturbation
• Metabolomics
• Spatial technologies
• Patient-partnered research Patients partner with our scientists to accelerate the pace of discovery and find better treatments.
• Partnering and licensing We work closely with pharmaceutical, biotech, and technology partners to accelerate the translation of our discoveries.
• Publications A catalog of scientific papers published by our members and staff scientists.
• Resources, services, and tools Key scientific datasets and computational tools developed by our scientists and their collaborators.
• Collaborations and consortia We join with institutions and scientists the world over to address foundational challenges in science and health.
• Carlos Slim Center for Health Research The Slim Center aims to bring the benefits of genomics-driven medicine to Latin America, gleaning new insights into diseases with relevance to the region.
• Gerstner Center for Cancer Diagnostics The Gerstner Center is developing next-generation diagnostic technology for cancer detection and tracking disease progression.
• Klarman Cell Observatory The Klarman Cell Observatory is systematically defining mammalian cellular circuits, how they work together to create tissues and organs, and are perturbed to cause disease.
• Merkin Institute for Transformative Technologies in Healthcare The Merkin Institute is supporting early-stage ideas aimed at advancing powerful technological approaches for improving how we understand and treat disease.
• Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Genomic Mechanisms of Disease This center is developing new paradigms and technologies to scale the discovery of biological mechanisms of common, complex diseases, by facilitating close collaborations between the Broad Institute and the Danish research community.
• Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center The EWSC is catalyzing a new field of interdisciplinary research at the intersection of data science and life science, aimed at improving human health.
• Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research The Stanley Center aims to reduce the burden of serious mental illness by contributing new insights into pathogenesis, identifying biomarkers, and paving the way toward new treatments.
• Art and science connection Explore the connection between art and science and how we bring together artists and Broad scientists through our artist-in-residence program, gallery exhibitions, and ongoing public conversations.
• Broad Discovery Center Visit our free public educational space that showcases how researchers at the Broad and their colleagues around the world seek to understand and treat human disease.
• Learning resources Access free classroom materials and more for STEM educators, parents, students, tutors, and others.
• Public programs Discover remarkable stories of scientific progress, and explore the intersections of science, medicine, and society.
• Student opportunities Learn about Broad Institute's mentored research offerings for high school students, college students, and recent college graduates.
• Visit Broad Come see what Broad is all about.
• Sign up for our newsletter Receive regular updates on Broad news, research and community.

A common fatty acid may help restore healthy vaginal bacteria after infection

Treatments using oleic acid, a naturally occurring oil used in cells, could improve treatment of  recurrent bacterial vaginosis infections.

Related people

Related programs

More than half of women globally experience bacterial vaginosis (BV) — an imbalance of naturally occurring microbes in the female genital tract — at least once in their life. The condition can cause painful symptoms and vaginal discharge, and although treatable with antibiotics, it frequently comes back within a short time. If left untreated, BV can lead to problems with pregnancy and an increased risk of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.

A team of researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; the Ragon Institute of Mass General Brigham, MIT, and Harvard; and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have discovered that oleic acid, one of the most abundant fatty acids in the body, restores a healthy balance of vaginal microbes in a laboratory model of BV.

Their findings, published in Cell , demonstrate that oleic acid and several other unsaturated long-chain fatty acids (uLCFAs), which are critical components of cell membranes and can have antimicrobial properties, simultaneously inhibit the growth of vaginal microbes associated with negative health effects and promote other species associated with a healthier female genital tract. Treatments that promote this balance of microbes could one day help prevent repeat vaginal infections in people.

“Current treatment methods work as well as a coinflip, and that hasn't changed in more than 40 years of medical practice, so new methods are needed to help patients” said first author Meilin Zhu, who recently graduated with a PhD from the labs of Paul Blainey , a Broad core institute member and MIT professor, and Doug Kwon , a core member of the Ragon Institute, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and an infectious disease physician at the Massachusetts General Hospital, both co-senior authors on the paper.

“I’m so proud of this team and the partnership we formed to follow the science and set up some major positive impacts on women’s health,” Blainey said. “This is an amazing story of keen observation, serendipitous discovery, and the hard work that real scientific rigor demands.”

Metabolic differences

The human female genital tract is naturally colonized by microbial species in the Lactobacillus genus. Treating BV with antibiotics can shift the balance of lactobacilli toward an overabundance of Lactobacillus iners , a bacterial species that creates an environment that is more susceptible to BV recurrence.

Zhu sought methods of promoting Lactobacillus crispatus , a species that creates a more stable microbiome than L. iners . She planned to use a large-scale screen developed in the Blainey lab to study the impacts of different compounds on the bacteria.

But Zhu discovered an important clue even before she began the screening. A component of the culture medium used to grow lactobacilli in the lab was disrupting the screening tool, but the bacteria would not grow in culture without it. While troubleshooting the issue, Zhu found that many of the lactobacilli required an ingredient in the medium — oleic acid — to thrive. When she cultured different strains of lactobacilli with oleic acid, she found that oleic acid inhibited growth of L. iners , the detrimental bacteria, and simultaneously promoted the growth of strains associated with healthier microbiota such as L. crispatus .

Using RNA sequencing and working with the Broad’s Metabolomics Platform and collaborators at St. Jude’s, the team identified a group of genes involved in processing uLCFAs that are present only in the non- Lactobacillus iners species. One of these genes encodes the enzyme oleate hydratase, which sequesters uLCFAs, a scarce resource, into a form only bacteria with this enzyme can use. Another of the genes encodes a fatty acid efflux pump that is necessary for bacteria to withstand high concentrations of oleic acid.

“We used state-of-the-art genetics tools that a lot of researchers in vaginal microbiology haven't had access to, even though they’re the gold standard for any mechanistic study,” Zhu said. “It's a good step forward for the field.” She added that the field of vaginal microbiology does not receive the same resources as other areas of microbiology.

The team also modeled how oleic acid might affect the vaginal microbiome of BV patients by culturing bacteria associated with BV together with L. iners and L. crispatus . Oleic acid effectively inhibited growth of L. iners as well as most BV-associated bacteria, including some strains resistant to standard antibiotic treatment. This indicates oleic acid may be an effective way to restore a stable, healthy microbiome in the female genital tract after BV. 

“This study is an important example of how understanding core metabolic requirements and functions of key bacteria can lead directly to new therapies that allow us to modify the microbiome for improved health,” said co-senior author Seth Bloom, an infectious diseases instructor at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

At the Ragon Institute, Kwon’s lab is working to move this research toward a human clinical trial.

“We believe there is exciting potential to translate these findings to durably alter the vaginal microbiome to improve BV treatment and reduce adverse health outcomes for women globally,” Kwon said.  

Support for this study was provided by the National Science Foundation, Schmidt Science Fellowship, American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and other sources.

Paper cited

Zhu M et al. Vaginal Lactobacillus fatty acid response mechanisms reveal a metabolite-targeted strategy for bacterial vaginosis treatment . Cell. Online August 19, 2024. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.07.029.

Latest news