A student in the Harvard Biophysics Program is given the opportunity to carry out an average of 3 research rotations in the laboratories of those faculty members whose research is of interest to the student.  Rotations are arranged in mutual agreement between student and faculty member, and can take place starting immediately with the beginning of the fall semester of the student's first year, or toward the middle or latter part of the first semester.

The Biophysics Program requires that the 1^st rotation is carried out in the laboratory of a Biophysics Core or Affiliate Faculty member, and at least two rotations be in Biophysics Faculty laboratories.  Students additionally may rotate in a laboratory within HILS, but not at MIT, if the faculty member is not part of a HILS program.

Biophysics 300, a required first year, fall semester course, is designed to assist students with these decisions by offering seminars by many of the faculty associated with the program, in which faculty describe their current research interests during one hour-long presentations.  The seminars are followed by, or may be carried out simultaneously with, three laboratory rotations that continue into the spring and summer, and generally last for roughly eight-to-ten weeks each.  These rotations provide the student with a good feel for a faculty’s research and should help to determine a student’s laboratory affiliation and advisor for their dissertation research.

Students in the Biophysics Program are able to carry out research rotations up until the beginning of the spring semester of their 2nd year in the program, by which time they are expected to have chosen a laboratory and advisor for their dissertation research going forward.

Prior to beginning a rotation, students are asked to complete and submit the Biophysics Rotation Registration Form.

At the conclusion of a rotation period, students are asked to submit the Biophysics Rotation Evaluation Form to the rotation laboratory PI to be returned to the Biophysics Program in order for the student to recieve credit for the rotation period.

Once a student has decided on their Dissertation Research Advisor, the student and advisor must complete and submit the Biophysics Dissertation Advisor Declaration Form.