BIMS Steering Committee
Purpose and Responsibilities
The BIMS Steering Committee monitors the Biomedical Sciences (BIMS) graduate program and advises on matters of graduate education. The committee reviews existing policies and develops new policies regarding BIMS graduate education, including the student remediation policies of all BIMS-affiliated degree-granting programs to assure the general principles of (1) fairness to students, (2) due process for students, (3) promptness of action and notification, and (4) balancing the best interests of each student with the program’s obligations to train graduates who demonstrate the highest standards of academic performance and conduct. The BIMS Steering Committee seeks input from, and communicates key information to, affiliated departments and graduate programs. The committee recommends faculty and student appointments for membership on the BIMS Curriculum Committee. The committee evaluates and determines the status of proposed BIMS-approved mentors who may not meet department-based criteria for mentorship but who are nominated to serve as mentors by BIMS-affiliated graduate program directors or department chairs.
Chair: Janet Cross, Associate Dean
- Michelle Bland (Pharmacology); 6/30/27
- Andreas Gahlmann (Representative from College of Arts and Sciences); 6/30/26
- Francine Garrett-Bakelman (Department of Medicine; Division of Hematology Oncology); 6/30/28
- Dan Gioeli (Microbiology); 6/30/25
- Muge Kuyumcu-Martinez (Physiology); 6/30/26
- Manoj Patel (Neuroscience); 6/30/27
- Ann Sutherland (Cell Biology); 6/30/26
- David Wotton (Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics); 6/30/25
- Jochen Zimmer (Biophysics); 6/30/26
- James Zimring (Experimental Pathology) 6/30/27
- Hui Zong (Neuroscience Graduate Program); 6/30/25
- Eli Zunder (Biomedical Engineering); 6/30/27
Authority
The BIMS Steering Committee is advisory to the dean of the School and the senior associate dean for education.
Membership selection and composition
The BIMS Steering Committee shall consist of a faculty member representative from each BIMS-affiliated degree-granting graduate program and basic science department in the School. The associate dean for graduate and medical scientist programs solicits nominations for faculty voting members from each program director or department chair and will recommend voting members to the dean or the dean’s designee for appointment. The BIMS Steering Committee shall also include a BIMS-approved mentor from the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences (CGSAS) and a BIMS-approved mentor from a clinical department in the SOM. The associate dean for graduate and medical scientist programs solicits nomination for the CGSAS member from the CGSAS associate dean for the sciences and from the senior associate dean for education in the School for nomination of the clinical department representative. Directors of graduate studies cannot serve on the BIMS Steering Committee. Faculty members are appointed for a three-year term with the possibility of one consecutive renewal. One-third of the committee turns over each year. Members are eligible to return after a three-year hiatus.
The associate dean for graduate and medical scientist programs chairs this committee ex officio and has voting privileges provided that he or she is a BIMS-approved mentor. The assistant dean for medical education serves as an ex officio, non-voting member. All other members of the BIMS Steering Committee are voting members provided that they are BIMS-approved mentors.
Meetings
The chair of the BIMS Steering Committee will call meetings as needed.
Quorum
A majority of the voting members of the BIMS Steering Committee constitutes a quorum for the transaction of business, and the act of a majority of those present at any meeting at which a quorum is present will be the act of the committee.