Welcome!

NGP is honored to train the next generation of neuroscientists, and we look forward to receiving your application to our PhD program.

NGP, and neuroscience in general, continues explosive growth at USC. Presently, more than 100 graduate students pursue their Ph.D. degrees within the NGP. Incoming graduate students can choose to perform their dissertation research in laboratories of nearly 120 NGP faculty members who hold primary appointments in more than 20 departments in the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts & Sciences, Viterbi School of Engineering, Keck School of Medicine, and the Schools of Pharmacy, Dentistry and Gerontology.

Over the course of the upcoming year, our first-year students will experience a renewed curriculum and will have the opportunity to do rotations in laboratories of their choosing. As they complete and defend their dissertation, our graduating students further their scientific experience through post-doctoral training, or pursue careers in biotechnology and related fields.

NGP is a community made up of students and faculty from across USC, with a wide range of different backgrounds and research interests. We hope that you will consider being a part of this community. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you,

Ruth I. Wood, PhD
Director, Neuroscience Graduate Program

Dr. Wood is Professor of Integrative Anatomical Sciences in the Keck School of Medicine of USC.  She studies anabolic-androgenic steroid abuse and behavioral neuroendocrinology, the study of how hormones act in the brain to control behavior.  She investigates the neurobiology of social and cognitive behavior, and how gonadal steroid hormones act in the brain during development and in the adult to effect sex differences and modify behavior.