The Harvard Chemical Biology PhD program is a community dedicated to scientific excellence and open intellectual inquiry, one in which students, faculty, and staff can fully participate, regardless of ethnicity, race, religion, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, nationality, socio-economic status, or disabilities. We value the academic, social, and broader community benefits that arise from a diverse campus and are deeply committed to equity, inclusion, and accountability.  We believe that diversity enriches our community and that dialogue between people with different perspectives, values, and backgrounds promotes intellectual inquiry and fosters collaboration. Above all, we believe that every human being is deserving of opportunities and an environment that values their authentic self just because they are human.

The Chemical Biology PhD program demonstrates its commitment to diversity by:

  • Actively recruiting a diverse student body through a holistic admissions process that emphasizes accomplishments in the context of opportunities 
  • Actively working to retain all our students by promoting inclusivity in our programming and expectations, and by connecting our students to University resources that provide additional opportunities to express individual identities
  • Actively recruiting faculty members with underrepresented social identities to the Chemical Biology program
  • Actively supporting our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force’s efforts to ensure that all program activities are equitable and inclusive, and that our Chemical Biology community is mindful of injustice in the context of privilege and marginalization
  • Integrating diversity-related knowledge into learning experiences inside and outside the classroom 
  • Ensuring equitable access to information for all our students – for example, by providing “how-to” information in the form of examples for how to meet program milestones, and fostering peer mentorship between advanced and younger students.
  • Actively working to enhance empathy and improve listening, at both personal and institutional levels. 
  • Encouraging the Chemical Biology faculty to participate in DEI-focused workshops on identity, culture, and community offered by the Office of Diversity and Minority Affairs at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard.
  • Prioritizing the Chemical Biology student over their advisors and holding faculty accountable for any misconduct – overt or microaggresive - involving the student.

We seek to foster an environment in which students, faculty, and staff from all backgrounds can live, work, and learn free from the insidious and debilitating effects of prejudice, discrimination, and marginalization. We denounce racism – whether intentional or not -  as antithetical to a just and inclusive community, and affirm our responsibility to continuously learn about and disrupt systems of privilege, inequality, and oppression, and to reform our programs, policies, pedagogy, and practices in accordance with this responsibility. We expect all members of our community to be mutually respectful and individually accountable.


Summer Research Internships

There are several great paid summer research programs for undergraduate students at Harvard. A complete list can be found here. Many of our Chemical Biology faculty participate in the following program.

The SHURP Program of the Division of Medical Sciences

Off-Campus Recruiting

Meet with Chemical Biology faculty and administrators at events such as research talks on your home campus and national conferences and scientific meetings. In addition, representatives from the Chemical Biology Program attend the following two conferences every year.

The Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS)
The Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS)

Resources for Current Students

Dr. Sheila Thomas, Assistant Dean for Diversity and Minority Affairs
Stephanie Parsons, GSAS minority recruitment and student programming officer
minrec@fas.harvard.edu, 617-495-5315

Minority Biomedical Students at Harvard (MBSH)
Minority Biomedical Students at Harvard is a student organization of the Division of Medical Sciences, the Graduate School’s interfaculty PhD program with Harvard Medical School. The mission of MBSH is to create a sense of community amongst the minority graduate and postdoctoral scholars working in the biomedical sciences. It publishes a weekly newsletter that includes links to numerous events of interest, including research seminars, seminars for professional development, job postings, and updates on accomplishments of MBSH members.

W. E. B. Du Bois Graduate Society is an organization of GSAS students and others devoted to addressing minority issues. The aims of the society are twofold: to be a forum where students can meet to discuss concerns of race and ethnicity, and to provide a social, intellectual, and political institution for minority student activities. In addition, the society wishes to serve as a liaison to welcome new and visiting minority scholars to the Harvard community.

Harvard Native American Program brings together Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian students and interested individuals from the Harvard community for the purpose of advancing the well-being of indigenous peoples through self-determination, academic achievement, and community service.

Harvard SACNAS Chapter Student Chapter of the Society for the Advancement of Hispanics/Chicanos and Native Americans in Science at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health