Funding

GRADUATE

The Department of BCMB offers a variety of support opportunities for both incoming and current graduate students.

Teaching Assistantships and Research Assistantships

The general policy of the BCMB department is to provide a stipend for all students accepted into the graduate program. For the first year, students are typically supported on graduate teaching assistantships (GTAs), although there are some special opportunities as described in the sections below for fellowship support. The GTA stipend is $26,400/year paid in twelve monthly installments. A tuition waiver is also included. In order for an international student to work as a GTA, the OPIc test must be passed with an AH (Advanced High) or higher, for more information go to the ITA Testing Website. Students who are supported as GTAs are expected to devote roughly twenty hours per week to their duties as teaching assistants. Teaching assignments vary, including working as assistants in undergraduate laboratories or running discussion sections for undergraduate lecture courses in biology.

After the first year, students will be supported by either teaching assistantships or research assistantships. Graduate research assistants are provided from faculty research grants to support student research in the mentor’s laboratory. The minimum level of support is equivalent to the stipend for a GTA in BCMB, although some faculty choose to give stipend support at a higher pay rate. It is anticipated that most students will be supported by this mechanism after the first one to two years in graduate school.

Departmental Awards

There are also internal awards offered by BCMB. Click here for a list of departmental awards.

Fellowships from the Division of Biology

The Alexander Hollaender Graduate Fellowship

The Alexander Hollaender Graduate Fellowship is made possible through an endowment fund contributed by Dr. and Mrs. Alexander Hollaender. In 1944, Dr. Hollaender established the Division of Biology at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and was its director until 1967. Hollaender had close ties to East Tennessee and expressed the wish that strong preference in awarding fellowships be given to students from this region. The Fellowship Committee will consider academic qualifications, geographical origin, and scientific/professional promise.

The Fellowship award of $6,000 will be awarded to one individual for one academic year.

Science Alliance Awards and Cokkinias Graduate Fellowship

The Division of Biology will again sponsor awards to its graduate students based on their record of scholarly achievements at the University of Tennessee. The awards are in the amount of $1,000–$3,000 each (less taxes). In addition to the monetary award, recipients have their names recorded on the plaque displaying each year’s awardees.

More information about these awards can be found here.

Graduate School Fellowship Opportunities

UT-Knoxville also has grant and fellowship opportunities that can be found at the Graduate School’s web page. This lists both fellowships and grants.