After Graduation

With a degree from the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto, our students have the competitive edge over other graduates because of the reputation of excellence associated with our Department.

One traditional career path that our Ph.D. graduates take is to become a professor at an academic institution or a Scientist at a research institute. To do this, our Ph.D. graduates embark on post-doctoral studies at another university or research institution. Typically, this involves 2 to 4 years of scientific investigation under the tutelage of a senior investigator (i.e. a Professor or Senior Scientist) to demonstrate their scientific independence further. Upon authoring additional, prominent scientific works, our alumni place themselves in very competitive positions to land many sought-after jobs at respected institutions worldwide. A Ph.D. from our Department, combined with a few solid publications, has facilitated the placement of our alumni interested in post-doctoral work in the best labs in the best institutions in the world. A small sample of our alumni who have followed the path of becoming prominent professors includes Brenda Andrews at the University of Toronto, Ian Chin-Sang at Queen’s University; Zhigang He at Harvard Medical School; Nevan Krogan at UCSF; Cecilia Moens at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; Steven Scherer at the Hospital for Sick Children; and Terry Yamaguchi at the National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute, to name but a few.

Our graduate program also gives our M.Sc. and Ph.D. alumni a competitive edge in pursuing many other career paths, including dentistry, genetic counselling, law, medicine, teaching, and becoming a research associate. In addition, many of our graduates have become involved in the development, establishment and operation of several biotechnological enterprises. These are but a few of our graduate program's potential career paths to help prepare our graduates.