Professionalization Requirements for BSD Students

To meet their degree requirements BSD students must complete two terms of professional preparation, at least one of which must involve serving as a Teaching Assistant to a UChicago course. The second requirement may be met with a second TA-ship, a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Assistantship, or by participating in the TA training course.

An important component of traditional academic professionalization is to gain experience in teaching. The BSD has therefore had a long-standing requirement that students gain mentored and evaluated teaching experience through serving as a Teaching Assistant. All BSD graduate students are required to serve as a Teaching Assistant (TA) to at least one course, for academic credit, before their Ph.D. degree is awarded.

In addition, students are expected to complete their professionalization requirement either by serving as a Teaching Assistant to a second course or through one of two alternative options. The first alternative option is to take the TA Training Course (BSDG 50000), which should typically be taken before the student serves as a TA. The second alternative option is to complete a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Assistantship. The DA-ship option is being piloted in the 2021/2 Academic Year.

Teaching is an important part of your development as a scientist, no matter what career path you'll follow later in life. Here are a few of the resources available to help you through the process of teaching in the BSD:

The Committee on Teaching in the BSD Final Report (2019)

Information for those interested in careers with a teaching component

Information about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Assistantships

Information about the Divisional Teaching Assistant Requirement

For Faculty Mentors of teaching assistants

The Teaching Assistant Compact (students complete the first part; faculty will have a link emailed to them after the student has completed their section)

The Center for Teaching

The TA Handbook

Canvas Online resource for courses

1906

Robert R. Bensley: isolated beta cells, leading to the discovery of insulin

In a series of investigations starting in 1906, Robert R. Bensley demonstrated that the islets of Langerhans were specialized elements of the pancreas. He developed staining methods that distinguished between alpha cells and the beta cells that produce insulin. Bensley's work was fundamental to the discovery of insulin. He later developed techniques to disassemble cells and isolate cellular components by spinning them in a centrifuge, a technique he used in 1934 to isolate mitochondria.

2013

Robert Grossman: developed first NIH-approved cloud-based computing system to process cancer data

In 2013, data scientist Robert Grossman developed the Bionimbus Protected Data Cloud, the first cloud-based computing system approved by the National Institutes of Health to process data from the Cancer Genome Atlas, the agency’s flagship cancer genetics study. In late 2014, Grossman became director of the Genomic Data Commons, an NIH-funded project based on Bionimbus that will be the nation’s most comprehensive data facility when completed.

Robert Grossman, Professor in Medicine

2016

Zhe-Xi Luo: discovered earliest-known arboreal and subterranean mammals

Zhe-Xi Luo, professor of organismal biology and anatomy at UChicago, was part of a team of researchers from UChicago and Beijing who discovered fossils of the earliest-known arboreal and subterranean mammals. The fossils suggest that early mammals were as ecologically diverse as modern mammals. Luo’s student David Grossnickle (Evolutionary Biology) also contributed to the research and was an author of one of the Science paper published on this discovery.

Fossils of the earliest-known arboreal and subterranean mammals

1910

Howard Ricketts: identified the cause of Rocky Mountain spotted fever

Pathologist Howard Ricketts discovered the organism that causes Rocky Mountain spotted fever before his death in 1910, providing the basis for treating the disease. Today the Howard T. Ricketts Laboratory at Argonne National Laboratory is a regional biocontainment laboratory that supports research for the detection, prevention, and elimination of anthrax, hemorrhagic fever, influenza, plague, and emerging infectious diseases.

2004

Cathryn Nagler: discovered links between intestinal bacteria and immunology

In 2004 Cathryn Nagler, the Bunning Family Professor in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and the Department of Pathology, was one of the first scientists to discover the link between intestinal bacteria and immunology. In 2014, Nagler discovered that Clostridia, a class of gut bacteria, protects against food allergies. Her research group is now working to find a treatment for food allergies via a microbiome-based treatment.

Cathy Nagler