Dennis T. Brown
128 Polk Hall Raleigh, NC 27695-7622
Telephone: 919-515-5801 Fax: 919-515-2047
Welcome to the NCSU Molecular and Structural Biochemistry homepage! It will provide you with information about our department, its faculty, facilities and resources, and is particularly directed to individuals interested in becoming a student in the department, either as an undergraduate major or a graduate student.
The Department of Molecular and Structural Biochemistry at NC State has a small but very effective faculty conducting research in modern molecular and structural biology. The Department occupies approximately 30,000 square feet of space in Polk Hall on the "Brickyard" in the heart of the north campus. Our faculty consists of 14 regular tenure or tenure track professors and is scheduled to increase to 15 in the next year. The faculty generates about four million dollars a year in research support, about two million of which comes from federal granting agencies and private foundations and the remainder from State and local sources. The faculty publishes an average of 28-30 scholarly papers annually in peer refereed journals and makes numerous presentations at national and international meetings.
Recent and planned faculty hires in the general area of structural biology have made NC State Molecular and Structural Biochemistry one of the most comprehensive programs in macromolecular structure-function in North America. Mass spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography, electron cryo-microscopy and sophisticated fluorimetry, are among the modern analytical technologies which are employed to solve the structure of large macromolecular aggregates, proteins and nucleic acids. NC State University and the Department of Molecular and Structural Biochemistry have become a member of the "Southeast Regional Consortium" of 23 universities constructing a new synchrotron beamline at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory. This membership ensures that the faculty and students of NC State Molecular and Structural Biochemistry will have access to the most sophisticated technology for structural analysis in the world. Together with excellent research programs in the regulation of gene expression and cell replication, research in structure-function relationships makes NC State Molecular and Structural Biochemistry an exciting and supportive environment in which to conduct research. NC State is located in the "Research Triangle" of North Carolina, an area which boasts the highest per capita population of Ph.D. degree holders in America and is one of the most research intensive regions in the world.
The Graduate program at NC State Molecular and Structural Biochemistry offers Ph.D. and Masters degrees in Biochemistry and draws excellent students from around the United States and around the world. These students are provided a competitive support package and are offered a challenging program of course work in modern molecular biophysics and biochemistry. Graduate students are major contributors to our research efforts, and our graduates go on to excellent post-doctoral experiences and career opportunities.
The Department of Molecular and Structural Biochemistry offers the undergraduate degree program in Biochemistry at NC State University. This program is truly an example of academic excellence. Averaging 350 to 400 undergraduate majors, it is one of the largest undergraduate Biochemistry programs in America and one of the most popular undergraduate degrees at NC State. The excellence of this program is underscored by the fact that in the past years 17% of all Phi Beta Kappas at NC State University were Biochemistry majors. The average GPA of students graduating with a degree in Biochemistry is about 3.5. Among our graduates were 4 students with perfect 4.00 GPAs. The graduating class last year contained 5 Cum Laude, 7 Magna Cum Laude and 15 Summa Cum Laude graduates. Seven students graduated from the departmental Honors program, which requires advanced mathematics, physics, physical chemistry (two semesters) and 3 credit hours of research. Recently a Biochemistry major was named recipient of a prestigious Truman fellowship for graduate studies. The undergraduate program in Biochemistry offers its majors the opportunity to conduct research in faculty laboratories, and many undergraduates become co-authors on scientific publications. We the faculty take great pride in our undergraduate program and the outstanding students who populate it.
Finally, the City of Raleigh is located in the center of the state of North Carolina. From the Great Smoky Mountains and Appalachian Trail in the west to the beaches and game preserves of the Outer Banks in the east, North Carolina has some of the best hiking trails, rivers, lakes, swamps and best kept state and national parks in America. The quality of professional and personal life at NC State is unexcelled.
I am very pleased and proud to be associated with this excellent collection of faculty, students and staff that is the NC State Molecular and Structural Biochemistry Department. I hope that you will find the information in our Web Page interesting and informative and that you will consider our department for your undergraduate or graduate educational experience. If I or any other member of our faculty can provide additional information or answer any question you may have about our programs, don't hesitate to contact us. We look forward to hearing from you.
Dennis T. Brown
Comments: 0