Financial support

All students accepted into the program are guaranteed a minimum annual stipend of $18,000/year for two years for MSc an and $18,000/year for three years for PhD. Funding is available in additional years of the program but the minimum is no longer enforced. The stipend can be made up from a combination of:

• National or provincial scholarships (NSERC). NSERC award holders receive additional funding from the university.
• UVic Fellowships (minimum GPA 7.5).
• Departmental awards (applications received annually in September).
• Teaching assistantships/lab instructor positions (more information is available from bioadmin@uvic.ca).
• Support payments from faculty research grants.

Forms

• Application for graduation form
• Graduate course change (add/drop) form
• Pro-forma proposal form (directed studies)
• Leave of Absence with Permission Request (formerly Request for Temporary Withdrawal with Permission)
• Travel grant form
• Thesis/dissertation approval form
• Thesis/dissertation withholding form

2011-12 Grad courses

BIOL 509A SEMINAR IN NEUROSCIENCE (Fall and Spring)
Dr. Bob Chow (bobchow@uvic.ca)

BIOL 521 ADVANCED TOPICS IN MARINE AND/OR FRESHWATER ALGAE: Ecological Physiology of Phytoplankton (Fall)
Dr. Diana Varela (dvarela@uvic.ca)
This course is intended for graduate students who are interested in:
1.  Learning about aspects of phytoplankton eco-physiology in more depth
2.  Making a connection between phytoplankton physiology and “larger" oceanographic issues, such as the dynamics of nutrient cycling, carbon export, paleoceanographic proxies, ocean warming and marine ecosystem changes.
3.  Acquiring more practice with critical review, assessment, presentation in front of their piers and discussion of scientific literature.
The course will be student-driven. Although the instructor will offer a few research-oriented talks throughout the term, the rest of the topics covered in the course will be assigned to and presented by the students. Every student is required to make a few oral presentations and write a final term paper.

BIOL 522 SENSORY BIOLOGY (Fall)
Dr. Erin Star (estar@uvic.ca)

BIOL 536 ADVANCED HUMAN MOLECULAR GENETICS (Spring)
Dr. Francis Choy (fchoy@uvic.ca)

BIOL 538 MICROBIAL ECOLOGY (Fall)
Dr. Réal Roy (realroy@uvic.ca) ROOM: COR A125 SCHEDULE: Monday, Thursday 8:30-9:50
DESCRIPTION An introduction to the ecology of the prokaryotes (bacteria and archaea). Diversity and evolution of populations and communities of prokaryotes and their role in the major biogeochemical cycles: carbon, nitrogen, sulfur. Genetic, biochemical, physiological and ecological aspects of processes such as nitrogen fixation or methanogenesis; design of experimental approaches to assess cycling of elements in forests, lakes and oceans by prokaryotes.

BIOL 540 MOLECULAR EPIDEMIOLOGY (Fall)
Dr. John Taylor (taylorjs@uvic.ca)

BIOL 543 CRITICAL EVALUATION OF EMERGING ECOLOGICAL ISSUES (Spring)
Dr. Asit Mazumder (mazumder@uvic.ca) Permission required by instructor to register in course.

BIOL 544 MOLECULAR EVOLUTION (spring)
Dr. Steve Perlman ( stevep@uvic.ca)

BIOL 550C ION CHANNELS: STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION (Spring)
Dr. Raad Nashmi (raad@uvic.ca Phone: 721-6169) ROOM: ELL 062 SCHEDULE: Mon, Thur 2:30-4 pm
Students must fill out an enrollment form that can be picked up at the Biology Department office
Electrical signals in neurons are produced by voltage-gated and ligand-gated ion channels. Any disturbance in the function of ion channels can lead to major neurological disorders. This course will give the opportunity for students to learn the structure and function of some of the major voltage- and ligand-gated ion channels and their relationship to channel related diseases. Mechanisms of ligand binding, gating and ion selectivity will be covered. The structure of the course will be based on lectures overviewing a topic and presentations and critical discussions of primary research papers. Students will learn to use bioinformatic tools to analyze the sequence and structure of ion channels. The course will also cover electrophysiological, fluorescence and crystallography techniques used to study structure-function of ion channels. We will also examine how alterations in ion channel function can contribute to specific nervous system disorders such as nicotine addiction and epilepsy.

NRSC 500 FUNDAMENTALS OF NEUROSCIENCE (Fall)
Dr. Brian Christie (brain64@uvic.ca)

FOREST BIOLOGY: TREE ECOPHYSIOLOGY WORKSHOP (Fall)
Sept. 19, 21 23, 27 & 29, 2011 9:00-17:30
Dr. Barbara Hawkins (bhawkins@uvic.ca) ph: 250-721-7117
Objectives: To study the theory and practice of measuring photosynthesis, respiration, chlorophyll fluorescence, water relations and nutrition in trees. To explore interrelationships among tree carbon acquisition, plant water relations and nutrition in an ecological context.