About Diversity at DMS

The Division of Medical Sciences, which is located at Harvard Medical School, administers six programs for PhD students in the biomedical sciences and the Summer Honors Undergraduate Research Program (SHURP). In recent years, the Division's PhD programs have included approximately 600 graduate students, more than one-half of whom are women. As the total graduate student population has increased by about 50% since the 1980s, the number of students who are members of racial or ethnic groups under-represented in the sciences has increased at the same rate. The Division has usually had 60 to 70 such students in its programs.

 

Graduates

From 2000 to the present, 95 under-represented individuals have earned their PhD degrees in Division programs. About half are continuing in research training or in research careers at such institutions as Washington University, Stanford, the University of Michigan, the Centers for Disease Control, Harvard, Rockefeller, Scripps Research Foundation, or the University of Miami. A few are continuing research in industrial settings at places like Genentech, Pfizer, or Millennium Pharmaceuticals.

 

Several are completing MD/PhD training, or are in residency or fellowship training at such sites as the University of Washington, UCSF, Johns Hopkins, Harvard affiliated teaching hospitals, Northwestern, or Columbia University.

 

Others have entered careers in the fields of science writing, educational software engineering, science policy, consulting, and patent law.

 

Faculty

Although there is a continuing need to increase further diversity among the faculty, there are several under-represented individuals holding clinical or research appointments at Harvard Medical School. Many of these individuals, and many of the majority faculty in the Division of Medical Sciences, are experienced mentors of minority MD or PhD students. Some of these faculty have also been effective advisors to minority high school and college students participating in special programs administered by Harvard-affiliated hospitals, the Harvard Medical School, and the Division of Medical Sciences.

Current DMS Student and Faculty Demographics


 

2017-2018

Students:

680 total students

322 women (47%)

358 men (53%)

 

69 underrepresented minority (10%)

 

Faculty:

653 total faculty

157 women (24%)

496 men (76%)


 

 

 


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