Academic Requirements for an M.Sc. Degree in Biology

Contact Us
If you have any questions regarding graduate studies at the Faculty, please refer to the contact information on this page:
Faculty Dean - Prof. Michael Glickman
Deputy Dean of Graduate Studies - Associate Professor Shenhav Cohen
Graduate Studies Coordinator - Keren Vidal
Curriculum and course registration

M.Sc. students must register for Graduate courses at the beginning of each semester. Before the beginning of each new semester, you shall receive a registration information letter. You should submit your Course Registration Form signed by your supervisor to the Faculty’s graduate Studies Coordinator. The form can be downloaded here: https://graduate.technion.ac.il/wp-content/uploads/CourseRegistrationENGLISH.doc

Mandatory courses:

1. One major course: Advanced Protein Structure and Function (138039) / Experimental Approaches in Nucleic Acids (138038)
/Genomic data science (138047)

M.Sc. students in their first year of study must take one of the following courses: Advanced Protein Structure and Function (138039) / Experimental Approaches in Nucleic Acids (138038) / “Genomic data science” (138047) and an additional mandatory course from the following three courses: “Models in biology” (136042), “Tools in structural bioinformatics” (138005) and “Systems biology” (136037).

2. Research Project 1 138060 and Research Project 2 138061
Students in their first year of study must take Research Project 1 (course 138060, Winter Term) and Research Project 2 (course 138061, Spring Term). Each of these courses consists of a research project in one of the following fields: biochemistry, molecular biology, genetics, cell biology, botany, zoology, ecology, etc.  Each course is worth 2.5 credits. During your research project, you will learn to use advanced lab methods, plan experiments, and summarize them appropriately. The course will teach you to develop your thinking of scientific questions, research purposes, and hypotheses, plan and perform experiments in the lab’s research field, and present your study results. The score for these courses is given in percentages.At the end of the course, you must submit a final paper (up to 5 pages) to your supervisor at the following format:
Introduction

  • Study purposes and hypotheses
  • Study methods
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • Bibliography

The final draft of the paper must be submitted to your supervisor by the end of the appropriate semester’s first exam session at the latest.

In your submission email, please cc Keren Vidal – Graduate Studies Coordinator kerenv@technion.ac.il

3. Current Topics in Biology (138083), (138084),(138085) and (138086) A+B
The Current Topics in Biology 1-4 courses consist of a weekly lecture given every Monday at 13:00 at the Faculty seminar throughout the entire term. The weekly lectures cover interesting new studies in biochemistry, biophysics, molecular biology, immunology, cell biology, genetics, genomics, bioinformatics etc. Each course is worth 0.5 credits. These courses are mandatory for M.Sc. students in all 4 semesters of their study. At the end of each semester, you must submit an opinion paper on one of the studies discussed during the course to the course teacher. The score for these courses is binary: pass/fail.

4. Scientific Writing in English for M.Sc. and Advanced English
All M.Sc. students must successfully pass the course Scientific Writing in English for M.Sc. The course is designed specifically for M.Sc. students at the Faculty of Biology. Passing the Advanced English course during the first semester is a prerequisite. Advanced English requirements: https://graduate.technion.ac.il/en/studies/languages

5. Research Ethics
Every research student at the Technion must take the online course Research Ethics (218000) as a prerequisite for submitting a research proposal or research topic. All the course contents, assignments, group discussions and exam are given remotely. The score for this course is pass/fail. To pass the course, you must submit all your assignments according to the instructions on the course website and successfully pass the exam. For more details, please visit the following link: https://graduate.technion.ac.il/en/studies/research/research-ethics

 

Seminar lecture - pre-graduation:

According to the Technion Graduate School regulations, M.Sc. students must give a seminar lecture about their research at an advanced stage of the research, in their final year of study, and no later than 2 weeks before the submission of their thesis. Times allocated for seminar lectures during each semester:

  • Winter Term – Wednesdays at 13:00
  • Spring Term – Tuesdays at 13:00

To schedule your seminar lecture (it is recommended to do it one semester in advance), please contact Graduate Studies Coordinator Keren Vidal (Kerenv@technion.ac.il)

About one month before the scheduled date, please submit: Your study title in English, a summary of your lecture (up to one paragraph) in English and your photo. The lecture will be posted on the Technion Google Calendar, in the Faculty mailing list, and on the Faculty notice boards.

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