Pharmaceutical Sciences

Alfred Williams, Chair (Interim)
2011 BRITE Building
E-mail: awilliams@nccu.edu
Department Phone: (919) 530-6706

David Thompson, BRITE Director

1011 BRITE Building

E-mail: dthomson@nccu.edu

Department Phone: (919) 530-7001

Overview

The Master of Science (MS) program in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at NCCU prepares students for careers in pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, and provides a solid foundation for those who plan to continue their education at the doctorate level. The graduate program in Pharmaceutical Sciences emphasizes excellence through teaching and state-of-the-art research in biotechnology and drug development.

Admission Requirements

For unconditional admission to the graduate program, a student must hold a bachelor’s degree in biology, chemistry, or related science with a minimum of 30 credits in biology, chemistry (including organic chemistry), biochemistry, and physics at the undergraduate level and a cumulative GPA of 3.0 in these courses. A conditional admission may involve correcting topic deficiencies by taking undergraduate courses that are prerequisites to graduate courses. Undergraduate biology and chemistry course deficiencies need to be removed within one semester of admission into the program. Credits in these courses do not count towards the graduate program.

Foreign Language Examination

Students are required to demonstrate knowledge of a foreign language, sign language, statistics, computer language, or other research tool. This requirement may be fulfilled by one semester of course work (3 hrs credit) in a foreign language, sign language, statistics, or a computer language at the graduate level. The Department also offers Bioinformatics (PHRM 5170) and Cheminformatics (PHRM 5180) as additional options to meet the language requirement. However, courses taken to meet the language requirement may not be used as course credit toward the master’s degree. Alternatively, the requirement may be fulfilled if the student passes a modern language examination administered for this purpose by the Modern Foreign Language Department at North Carolina Central University in French, German, or Spanish.

Comprehensive Written Examination

Students are required to successfully pass a written comprehensive examination covering each of the six core curriculum courses. Students may select any four subject exams and are required to score a grade of B or higher in order to pass each section. A grade of less than B will require that the student retake that/those exam(s) at the next regularly schedule comprehensive exam date. Students are encouraged to discuss issues regarding the comprehensive examination with the Department Chair, Graduate Coordinator, and the directors of each core course.

Transfer credits

A maximum of 6 credits of graduate level coursework completed with a grade of B or better can be transferred towards the MS program, except when such credits have been applied towards graduation in another program.

Pharmaceutical Sciences Graduate Faculty

Ibeanu, Gordon (Associate Professor)

B.S., University of South Alabama

Ph.D., Atlanta University

Li, Ping-An (Andy) (Professor)

B.S., Ningxia Medical University

M.S, Capital Medical University, Beijing

Ph.D., University of Lund, Sweden

Lopez, Dayami (Assistant Professor)

B.S., IPVCE “Martires de Humboldt 7”, Havana, Cuba

Ph.D., University of South Florida, Tampa, FL

Sexton, Jonathan Z. (Associate Professor)

B.S. University of California

Ph.D., University of California

Scott, John E. (Associate Professor)

B.S., University of Illinois

Ph.D. Duke University

Thompson, David S. (Professor)

B.S., University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom

Ph.D., University of Toronto

Xie, Jiahua (Jay) (Assistant Professor)

B.S., Zhejiang University

Ph.D., Zhejiang University

Williams, Alfred L. (Associate Professor)

B.S., San Diego State University

M.S., San Diego State University

Ph.D., North Carolina State University

Williams, Kevin P. (Associate Professor)

B.Sc., University of Bath, UK

Ph.D., University of Cambridge, UK

Yang, Liju (Assistant Professor)

B.S., HangZhou Teachers College, China

M.S., Zhejiang University (formerly Hangzhou University), China

Ph.D. University of Arkansas

Zheng, Weifan (Associate Professor)

B.S., Peking University M.S., Nankai University

Ph.D., The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Information