Self-Study Report Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics External Academic Program Review, April 2021 This document was prepared in 2021 Academic Program Review (APR) Ad hoc. committee Betty Cotton Justine deGruyter Timothy Devarenne Ping He Kaitlyn McGaff Jean-Philippe Pellois Michael Polymenis Josh Wand 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures 6 List of Tables 8 Charge to the Peer Review Team 10 Itinerary for Virtual Visit for the External Review Team 11 Executive Summary 18 Introduction to the Department 20 Departmental history 20 Mission, strategic plan and goals 21 Administrative Structure 21 Leadership 22 Faculty departmental committees 24 Permanent committees 24 Standing committees 24 Ad hoc. committees 24 Administrative support staff 25 Undergraduate office staff 25 Graduate office staff 25 Web presence 25 Facilities management staff 25 Stockroom staff 26 COALS administrative staff 26 Business Office 26 Information Technology 27 Academic Advising 27 Research Staff 27 Departmental Resources 28 Facilities 28 Main BCBP Building 28 NMR Annex 28 Borlaug Center 29 Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Building (ILSB) 29 Research Infrastructure 29 Center for Phage Technology 29 Center for Structural Biology 30 Common use equipment system (CUE) 30 3 Biomolecular NMR laboratory 31 Protein Chemistry Lab (PCL) 31 Integrated metabolomics analysis core (IMAC) 31 Response to previous APR critiques 31 Analysis 32 Academic Programs 33 Graduate Programs 33 PhD in Biochemistry 33 Program Curricula 35 Rotations and Laboratory Selection 36 Courses 37 Teaching Assistantship and Relationship to the Undergraduate Programs 37 Research Proposal and Preliminary Examination 37 Annual Committee Meetings and Thesis Committee 39 Seminar Series 39 Dissertation and Thesis Defense 40 Graduate Training Programs 40 Number of Degrees Awarded Per Year 40 Average Time to Degree 41 Academic Enhancements and High-Impact Opportunities for Students 41 Town Halls 42 Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes 42 Admissions and Admissions Criteria 43 Response to previous APR critiques 44 Analysis 47 Interdisciplinary Program (IDP) in Genetics 48 Undergraduate Programs 49 Academic Programs and Curricula 49 Accreditations 49 Program curricula in Biochemistry 50 Program curricula in Genetics 50 Courses/Degree Plans 51 BS in Biochemistry 51 BS in Genetics 52 Admission Criteria 53 Number of Degrees Awarded per year 54 4 Average Time to Degree 55 Academic Enhancements 55 Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes 56 Assessment of Biochemistry Program 56 Assessment of Genetics Program 58 Response to previous APR critiques 58 Analysis of Biochemistry Program 58 Analysis of Genetics Program 59 Faculty Profile 60 Tenured and tenure-track Ad loc. faculty 60 Demographics of Ad loc. faculty 61 Faculty diversity 61 Faculty qualifications 62 Participation in interdepartmental and interdisciplinary programs 63 Joint faculty 63 Non-tenure track Research Faculty 64 Academic Professional Track Faculty 64 Fields of study of research-active faculty 64 Interactions among research-active faculty 65 Research productivity of the Ad loc. faculty 66 Publications 66 Funding 68 Teaching Productivity of Ad loc. and non-tenure track faculty 70 Student:Faculty ratio 70 Teaching load 71 Service productivity 72 Awards 73 Response to previous APR critiques 73 Analysis 74 Comparison to peer institutions by Academic Analytics 75 Student Profiles 76 Graduate Students 76 Student Profile (Current) 76 Student Profile (20-Year Trends) 77 Class size 77 GRE and GPR/A scores 78 5 Race and ethnicity 78 Federal designation and gender distributions 80 Geographic diversity of domestic students 80 Attrition 80 Analysis 81 PhD completion rates 81 Student productivity 82 Distribution of graduate students within the department and in research laboratories 83 Undergraduate Students 84 Enrollment 84 Student Diversity/Demographics 86 Retention Rates 87 Number of Degrees Awarded per Year 87 Graduation Rates 87 Average Time to Degree (most recent 5 years) 88 Analysis 88 Conclusions and Action Plan 89 Appendices 92 6 List of Figures FIGURE 1. Organizational chart of the Departmental administration. FIGURE 2. Organizational chart of the College-administered Business, IT, and Advising Offices. FIGURE 3. Typical schedule of Advisory Committee meetings. FIGURE 4. Number of PhD degrees awarded by year for the past 30 years. FIGURE 5. Average year-to-degree for students who entered the program between 2000 and 2013. FIGURE 6. Number of applicants to the PhD program since 2010. FIGURE 7. Distribution of year-to-degree (YTD) and year-to-preliminary-exam (YTPE) for BCBP PhD students who graduated during the 2000-2015 period. FIGURE 8. Implemented changes to improve advising and decrease the time to degree. FIGURE 9. PhD candidates currently in the program distributed as a function of the academic year they entered the program. FIGURE 10. Number of BICH and GENE transfer students admitted for AY 2015-2019. FIGURE 11. Performance of TAMU BICH students on ASBMB Degree Certification Exam. FIGURE 12. Age and rank distribution of Ad loc. faculty over the review period. FIGURE 13. Network of co-authorships among research-active faculty since 2015. FIGURE 14. Publications of Ad loc. faculty over the review period. FIGURE 15. Cumulative literature impact of Ad loc. and Joint faculty. FIGURE 16. Funding of Ad loc. faculty over the review period. 7 FIGURE 17. Student:Faculty ratio over the review period. FIGURE 18. Radar chart of BCBP performance among peer biochemistry departments identified by Academic Analytics. FIGURE 19. Distribution of gender for students currently enrolled in the program by matriculation year. FIGURE 20. Box and whisker plot for the graduate GPA of students currently in the program and enrolled since 2015. FIGURE 21. Class size by matriculation year. FIGURE 22. GRE verbal (V) and GPR of PhD cohorts. FIGURE 23. Ethnicity distribution of students entering the BCBP graduate program. FIGURE 24. Distribution of matriculating cohorts by gender and federal designation. FIGURE 25. Geographic diversity of admitted domestic students. FIGURE 26. Attrition and PhD completion rates in real numbers and percent attrition and PhD completion. FIGURE 27. Percent graduation rates by gender and percent graduate rates by federal designation. FIGURE 28. Distribution of students recruited into the program for the period 2009-2019 and corresponding distribution of the students who graduated or who remain on the PhD track within the same time period. FIGURE 29. Student publications. FIGURE 30. Proportion of graduate students within research personnel. FIGURE 31. Freshman BICH and GENE Enrollment for AY 2015-2019. 8 FIGURE 32. Total BICH and GENE Undergraduate Enrollment for AY 2015-2019. FIGURE 33. Non-Major vs. Total Department Undergraduates Taught for AY 2015-2019. FIGURE 34. Percent of Freshman BICH and GENE students retained in the department after the first year. FIGURE 35. BICH and GENE graduation rates in comparison to other science majors for AY 2015-2019. List of Tables TABLE 1. Semester demand on Teaching Assistantships since 2018. TABLE 2. Preliminary examination proposal components. TABLE 3. Thesis working committee composition and structure. TABLE 4. Biochemistry BS Curriculum. TABLE 5. Genetics BS Curriculum. TABLE 6. Number of BICH and GENE degrees awarded for AY 2015-2019. TABLE 7. Graduation statistics for BICH and GENE majors for AY 2015-2109. TABLE 8. Ad loc. faculty. TABLE 9. Joint faculty. TABLE 10. Non-tenure track research faculty. TABLE 11. Academic Professional Track Faculty. 9 TABLE 12. Research areas of the Department. TABLE 13. Publication output of Ad loc. faculty. TABLE 14. External Grand Research Expenditures from Ad loc. faculty. TABLE 15. Sources of research funding (n = Ad. loc faculty) for the 2015-2020 period. TABLE 16. Lecture/Lab sections taught for AY2020-21. TABLE 17. Current departmental committee membership. TABLE 18. BCBP Ad loc. faculty intramural awards since 2015. TABLE 19. BCBP Ad loc. faculty extramural awards since 2015. TABLE 20. Number of large collaborative proposals to NIH at peer departments. TABLE 21. Total department attrition rates for students matriculating between 2000–2020. TABLE 22. Demographics of BICH and GENE Majors for AY 2016–2019. 10 Texas A&M University Academic Program Review (APR) Charge to the Peer Review Team The Academic Program Review (APR) process at Texas A&M University provides the occasion for academic units to plan strategically, assess the quality and efficiency of their programs, and determine the best courses of action for ongoing improvement. APR is at the heart of our institutional commitment to excellence, and we sincerely thank you for assisting us. This letter provides you with the charge to the committee and a brief overview of the department. Peer Review Team Charge Please examine the department and its programs and make recommendations that will help in planning improvements. Your resources are a self-study report prepared by the department, copies of materials from the program’s last review, information you gain through personal interactions while visiting Texas A&M University, copies of strategic plans and goal-setting documents at the department, college, and/or university level, and any additional information requested by you or by the department. Within the broad charge of recommending ways the department can continue to improve are some specific questions that we would like you to address: ● Based on the data / information provided in the self-study report