Developmental and Brain Sciences (DBS), PhD
The Ph.D. program in Developmental and Brain Sciences (DBS) at the University of Massachusetts Boston is a research-intensive program focused on understanding cognition, perception, and behavior when underlying neural and hormonal mechanisms are developing. Core faculty (Jane Adams, Erik Blaser, Vivian Ciaramitaro, Tiffany Donaldson, Richard Hunter, Zsuzsa Kaldy, Celia Moore, Jin Ho Park, Mohinish Shukla, and Susan Zup) engage in lab work ranging from cognitive development and psychophysics to neuroendocrinology and behavioral genetics. Students may follow a Cognitive specialization investigating functional changes in perceptual and cognitive abilities or a Behavioral specialization investigating neural and hormonal correlates of behavior. Independent of specialization, DBS students will receive rigorous core training in methods (dry and wet lab skills, advanced statistical methods, computational tools like MATLAB) and work in laboratories using multiple levels of investigation including psychophysical and neuropsychological evaluation, functional brain imaging (NIRS, ERP), and neuropharmacological, molecular/cellular, and genetic methods. DBS labs will be housed in the new Integrated Sciences Building (completion date 2013), part of our campus on the Columbia Point peninsula. This location is just a few miles south of downtown, neighbors Metro Boston’s world-class research universities, and offers wonderful views of the city and Boston Harbor.
If you have additional questions, please contact us at dbs@umb.edu.
