Augusta University’s College of Science and Mathematics is launching an undergraduate neuroscience program.
The University System Board of Regents approved the new bachelor of science in neuroscience degree on April 18.
The interdisciplinary program will draw from every major within the college, including biology, chemistry and psychology. Electives in physics and mathematics will be required, and as students hone in on their interests and progress towards a specialty, they can take courses such as neuropharmacology.
While AU had already offered a neuroscience degree through the Graduate School, this is the first time the degree option is available to undergraduate students.
“We will have neuroscientists being trained potentially at AU from the time they enter as a freshman,” said Lynnette McCluskey, co-director of the neuroscience graduate program. “We are excited about a subset staying to complete their Ph.D. work.”
Cathy Tugmon, associate dean of academic and graduate affairs for the College of Science and Mathematics, traced the idea of an undergraduate neuroscience program to the summer of 2021, with the formation of the Transdisciplinary Research Initiative in Inflammaging and Brain Aging, or TRIBA. This new research cluster sought to recruit faculty to study diseases and inflammation related to brain aging.
“The College of Science and Mathematics started work on designing and seeking in-house approval for a minor in interdisciplinary neuroscience that would have courses from several of our departments in the college as part of the requirements for the minor,” Tugmon said. “The minor was approved to start in fall 2022.”
In November of 2021, leaders from each of the colleges and schools at AU met with Gray Associates, a firm that specializes in academic program evaluation software, for a two-day portfolio review workshop.
“One of the potential new degrees that bubbled up to the top at the end of the workshop was a B.S. in Neuroscience,” said Tugmon.
The undergraduate degree will be heavy on lab work, with all students required to take courses to learn lab techniques. Per the program’s origins in a faculty research initiative, majors could directly contribute to new discoveries during research.
“Most of these students, although they might start on the medical track, find that they really love research, and that opens up a lot of opportunities to them,” said Michael Hoane, chair of the Department of Psychological Sciences. “A neuroscience major is a great mixture of students who are going to be on that medical, dental or other allied health tracks, and those who are coming from other departments and various research tracks.”
The degree won’t be strictly pre-med. Tugmon notes that the new bachelor’s could prove rewarding for neuroscience grads with a variety of potential career tracts outside of healthcare: including government work overseeing policy related to neurological diseases or health-related initiatives; working in the “big data” fields with artificial intelligence and brain-machine interfaces; or research careers in biotech, pharmaceutical or academic fields.
“If I had the opportunity to focus on neuroscience in my undergrad, then I certainly would have,” said Kirstyn Denney, a student at AU’s graduate neuroscience program. “It would have provided a more structural foundation of the major concepts in neuroscience.”
The bachelor of science in neuroscience program at AU’s College of Science and Mathematics will begin offering courses in the fall of 2023.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
