Skip to main content

Joining the BCB Faculty

Joining the BCB Faculty

Thank you for your interest in becoming a faculty mentor in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Curriculum in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. BCB is administered through the Department of Genetics, but we are an interdepartmental PhD program.

The most important role of Curriculum faculty is to mentor students, both as the advisor and by serving on dissertation committees.  In addition, Curriculum preceptors are expected to actively participate in programmatic activities, such as attending and hosting speakers in our seminar series, attending occasional student defenses, attending annual meetings of BCB faculty, and, if possible, attending the annual Department of Genetics / GMB / BCB scientific retreat.  Moreover, as a member of the Curriculum you will be called on you from time to time to help with other types of service, as described below.

Application:

To be considered, please send the following to the Director of Graduate Studies (a single combined PDF is preferred):

1) Your NIH biosketch.

2) A letter that describes:

  1. Your scientific background and training.
  2. Your current / planned research program.
  3. Why you would like to join BCB and why you think you’re a good fit?
  4. A brief statement (paragraph) saying whether you would consider yourself a Resource Faculty or a Core Faculty and explaining why, with reference to their definitions at http://bcb.unc.edu/faculty/. In particular, if you wish to be a Core Faculty, please provide the following additional information:
    1. Citations to relevant papers. Include PDF copies of 1-2 of these and in each case state your role.
    2. A list of individuals who could be contacted by the Executive Committee as needed.
  5. How you would prefer to contribute to the Curriculum through occasional service, such as (but not limited to):
    • Teach a BCB core module that is required for all BCB students.
    • Teach an elective course that serves BCB students (e.g., developing and teaching a 5-week course module or a seminar on area of your expertise or other teaching).
    • Contributing to a team-taught course.
    • Serving on the Doctoral Written Exam committee.
    • Advising BCB students.
    • Serving on BCB student dissertation committees.
    • Serving on BCB administrative committees (curriculum, exam, etc.).
    • Serving on university committees representing the BCB community.
    • Serving on a BBSP admissions committee.
    • Being involved with BBSP First Year Group leadership.
    • Attend BCB related functions such as the annual retreat, socials, lunch and learns, and more.
  6. A discussion of any special circumstances that we should consider (laboratories away from the main campus, primary appointment in a clinical department, non-tenure-track appointments, etc.).
  7. A brief statement (a few paragraphs is fine) that outlines your philosophy on training doctoral students and one or two examples of projects that might be undertaken by a student in your lab. For more senior faculty, evidence of successful mentoring in the past can suffice.

These items will be distributed to the members of the BCB Steering Committee.  If they approve, you will be appointed for a three-year term, after which you will be evaluated for reappointment.

After Approval:

Once approved by the BCB Steering Committee, you should provide the following items to BCB’s Curriculum Administrator:

  1. Name (as you prefer it listed on the BCB website).
  2. Professional Title.
  3. Current Photo (headshot).
  4. Office Phone.
  5. Office Location.
  6. Preferred Email.
  7. Lab Website.
  8. Research Areas. Choose all applicable from: Bioinformatics, Comparative Genomics and Molecular Evolution, Computational Biophysics, Computational Genomics, Computational Systems Biology, Image Analysis, Statistical and Population Genetics.
  9. Research Interest. 1 to 2 sentence research interest statement.

The Curriculum Administrator will also work with you to schedule a date in the fall to give a presentation about your research to the first and second year students in the BCB Colloquium.

Information on how BBSP works:

For recruiting BBSP students for rotations, read over the For Faculty page of the BBSP, including “How BBSP works for faculty”, “Setting up Rotations”, “Expectations for a Rotation”, “Feedback Meetings with Students”, and “Rotation Grades”.