Information from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus regarding the Graduate School’s Neuroscience Program and answers to questions regarding James Holmes.
Background on James Holmes
- Mr. Holmes was a student in the Neuroscience Program at the Graduate School at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
- Mr. Holmes decided to withdraw from the program in June 2012; he gave no reason for his withdrawal from the Graduate School.
- He had an appointment on a Neuroscience Training Grant from the National Institutes of Health. The grant funds six pre-thesis PhD students in the Neuroscience Program at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. The focus of the program is on training outstanding neuroscientists and academicians who will make significant contributions to neurobiology. It's called the NIH T32 grant HD041697 entitled "Neuroscience Training Grant."
- Police on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus had no contact with Mr. Holmes.
Doctoral Program (PhD) in Neuroscience
Program Facts
- The University of Colorado PhD in Neuroscience is a program that focuses on studies of how the brain works. Specifically, the emphasis is on processing of information, behavior, learning and memory.
- This program is administered through the University of Colorado Denver Graduate School.
- Among the 35 graduate students as of Fall 2011, 65 percent are women, 14 percent underrepresented minorities or disabled and 9 percent are students from rural colleges and universities in the Rocky Mountain Region.
- Each year an average of six students enters the program.
- Completion typically takes five to seven years.
- During the first year, students attend classes and initiate research. Then as they continue in the research-based program, the full-time focus shifts to research.
- At the end of the first year, students are required to take 'prelim' oral exams. Students who do well on the oral exam continue with the research program. Students who have difficulties with the oral exam discuss with the training committee possible options for moving forward, including retaking the exam.
- At the University of Colorado, the NSP is an interdisciplinary PhD degree granting program started in 1986 that has been funded by an NIH training grant since 1993. The program currently had ~60 faculty who come from six basic science and six clinical departments.
