Chemical Forums
Specialty Chemistry Forums => Chemical Education and Careers => Topic started by: SheffieldWednesday4ever on April 19, 2011, 04:37:49 PM
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I'm planning on doing MD/PhD program, and was wondering if anyone knows what kind of research is applicable? Do you just find and choose a prof to do your research with?
And my interest currently is in DFT. So in the program, would I be able to do research in terms of developing DFT methods (which I'm most interested in), or would it have to be research that applies it to finding molecular structure of proteins, DNA, etc.?
Or, is computational chemistry research out of the question in MD/PhD programs? I'm having a hard time finding out how you select the research.
Cheers
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There are A LOT of PhD programs where you can focus on computational chemistry (though, a lot of them are just lumped into the Physical Chemistry section). And yes, DFT is a big part of it.
There are people who develop methods, and those who just use it to find structures, etc.
Welcome to the hard part of finding a PhD program to go to. So, start with big good schools, and even look at regions you might want to live, visit the websites of the schools and read about the professors. Email the professors you think you might want to work with and tell them what you are interested in, when you plan on applying, if they might be accepting students then,etc.
This process, picking the right schools to apply to, takes a lot of hard work and time. And apply to as many as you can afford, and I would recommend only applying to schools unless there is at least 2 people you think you would be willing to work with.
Then visit all the schools you are accepted to (the good schools pay you to visit).
Good luck!
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Thank you. But I was really wondering if anyone knew the criteria in medical school. If you choose to do an MD/PhD, (at the same time), does the medical school let you choose whichever PhD program you want? (Which may include DFT development/applications)
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Maybe, but that is an even more specific requirement. You are going to have to look hard to find a medical school that does MD/PhD and has a good computational chemistry/biochemistry program.
Not impossible; but totally depends on the medical school.