The National Institute of Genetics welcomes graduate students from abroad. We offer a 5-year PhD program in the life sciences as the Department of Genetics, SOKENDAI. Our program provides an interdisciplinary education with frequent seminars, journal clubs, and workshops on scientific writing and presentation. Education and research at NIG are conducted primarily in English and knowledge of Japanese is not required for PhD studies.

NIG consists of about 40 research groups, each headed by a professor or an associate professor who leads an innovative research program in a highly interactive atmosphere. The quality of NIG research is evident from the frequent citations of papers published from the institute and the high funding rates for our grant proposals. NIG houses tremendous resources for basic research in life sciences, such as the well-established DNA database (DDBJ), an extensive collection of mutant strains of various model organisms, and state of the art research equipment.

United under the term "Genetics", graduate students at NIG continue to expand the frontiers of life sciences, in molecular and cell biology, development, neurosciences, evolution, structural biology and bioinformatics. Faculty research summaries can be found at http://www.nig.ac.jp/section/research-e.html.

All NIG faculty are committed to providing a friendly and stimulating environment in which students can have in-depth discussions with researchers in an wide range of fields. This approach encourages students to broaden their views and helps them find breakthroughs when research is not going smoothly.

NIG offers a laboratory rotation system for students in the international graduate program (IGP). During their first six months in the program, IGP students experience independent research in three laboratories of their choice. This gives students an opportunity to explore several research areas before choosing a thesis advisor.

Students with a bachelors degree or equivalent are eligible to apply to our 5-year PhD program. Students admitted to the International Graduate Program receive competitive financial support (currently, 170,000JPY/month). People interested in applying should send application documents by December 13, 2011. Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores for the General Test (verbal, quantitative, and analytical writing) are optional, but are strongly recommended. Applicants should register for this exam well in advance of the application deadline (scores must be received by December 31, 2011). In addition, applicants will be asked to take an NIG written exam (via email). This written exam consists of two parts, an English exam and a mini report. The mini-report is designed to test analytical ability rather than background or knowledge; no particular preparation should be necessary. Candidates selected for internet interviews will be notified by January 23th, 2012 and the interviews will be conducted on January 30th (reserve date February 2). Successful candidates will be contacted in mid-February. Enrollment is October, 2012.