Contacts: Jack R. Warner, Executive Director and CEO
jack.warner@sdbor.edu

Janelle Toman, Director of Communications
Janelle.toman@sdbor.edu

Telephone: (605) 773-3455
Fax: (605) 773-5320
www.sdbor.edu

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  Wednesday, October 9, 2013

SDSU Approved for Ph.D. Degree in Biochemistry

SPEARFISH, S.D. – South Dakota job growth in the biosciences is outpacing the nation, and South Dakota State University now has a new doctoral degree to prepare its graduates for high-tech careers in that growing field.

The South Dakota Board of Regents Wednesday approved SDSU’s request to offer a Ph.D. degree in biochemistry. Since 2005, the university has offered a biochemistry track within its doctoral program in chemistry, but officials say it has been more difficult to recruit students to a chemistry program, who want a biochemistry degree. The new Ph.D. degree should solve that problem, and make it easier to recruit both students and faculty.

Economic development officials in South Dakota have identified biosciences as a targeted sector for job development in this state, and the growing biosciences industry offers a range of new opportunities for graduates. In South Dakota, the number of bioscience employers has grown 55 percent between 2001 and 2009, with an employment growth rate of 42 percent and the creation of more than 1,000 new jobs.

By 2018, a 12 percent increase in new jobs is projected in the South Dakota biosciences industry, with 10 percent of those requiring a doctoral degree.

The new degree program is effective immediately. Since a majority of the biochemistry curriculum is already in place at SDSU, only a few new courses needed to be added. There were eight Ph.D. students in the biochemistry track last spring. University officials expect to attract 11 students, either new to SDSU or from other university programs, into the new degree program in its first year.

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