MICaB Faculty Membership Information

Faculty in the MICaB program are reappointed every three years provided they have carried out their responsibilities in a satisfactory manner, as determined by an evaluation carried out by the CGS. This evaluation occurs during the last semester in the third year of the DGS’s term. Faculty admitted within the past 3 years do NOT have to apply for reappointment as they are automatically reappointed.

To be reappointed, faculty must show that they have an active research program as demonstrated by the publication of a primary authorship (first or last author) OR a collaborative (co-author) paper in a peer-reviewed journal in the three year period preceding the evaluation; AND they must have had a Ph.D. or Master’s Degree student receive a degree under their tutelage within the 5 year period preceding the evaluation, OR be in the process of training a Ph.D. or Master’s degree student at the time of the evaluation, OR be able to demonstrate significant involvement in the MICaB program by teaching or serving on committees.

New MICaB faculty members are reviewed by the MICaB Faculty Admissions Committee. Faculty interested in joining the MICaB program are considered for appointment to the program only during the academic year. At the outset, each applicant is required to identify an advocate from the current MICaB faculty in his/her track of interest. Applicants are required to submit a C.V. or NIH-style biosketch, a statement of graduate education philosophy, along with a nomination letter from the MICaB faculty advocate. This information is distributed to the entire MICaB faculty by the MICaB Program Coordinator. The applicant presents a seminar in either the MICaB Invited Speaker Seminar Series or the MICaB Student Seminar Series. Following the seminar, the MICaB Faculty Admissions Committee Chair will convene a meeting to solicit discussion of the applicant and to conduct a vote on admission to the program. For admission to the MICaB Graduate Faculty, a minimum of 2/3 of the ballots cast must be in favor of admission. The committee informs the DGS of the committee’s decision and the DGS then notifies the faculty applicant of the outcome.

The faculty applicant must be of the highest quality to mentor and teach students and interact with other MICaB faculty colleagues. The committee considers the following issues when evaluating faculty applicants:

• Does the applicant perform top-quality research and does their research fit within the scope of the three MICaB disciplines?
• Does the applicant have an independent and interesting research program that will attract students?
• Does the applicant have the ability to financially support a student for the duration of their training (i.e., external funding, preferably from federal sources such as NIH, NSF)?
• If the applicant is a new faculty member and does not yet have external funding (and thus would support a student from start-up funds), does the applicant appear qualified to train students and capable of obtaining external funding in the future?
• Is there sufficient evidence of commitment of the applicant to graduate education and service to the program?
• Does the applicant have the necessary communication skills and ability to teach in MICaB courses?