Committees

To provide management of specific areas, we have created six committees, each of which includes equal representation from Pitt and CMU. The members serve two- or three-year terms, rotating off in a staggered fashion to preserve continuity.

Committee	Role	Members
Curriculum	Ensures that the curriculum of the training program remains current in terms of advances in modern computational biology. The role of this committee is particularly important for our program, since computational biology is a rapidly evolving field. The members consist of institutional representatives for each of the four specialization areas in addition to the two chairs. Meets at least twice per semester, in addition to other meetings and correspondence as needed	Marcel Bruchez, CMU Carlos Camacho, Pitt Chakra Chennubhotla, Pitt James Faeder, Pitt Bino John, Pitt Hagai Meirovitch, Pitt Roni Rosenfeld, CMU, Nik Sahinidis, CMU, Russell Schwartz, CMU, chair Joel Stiles, CMU
Admissions	Handles all matters related to the recruitment of new high-quality students, including the evaluation of applicants. Prompt and careful evaluation of the candidates is their priority, and they have initiated a 2-step applicant’s evaluation process, starting the review of the applicants’ materials by the end of the first deadline (Dec 15) to encourage early application, and completing the selection process, along with the identification of candidates to be interviewed, shortly after the final application deadline (Jan 15).	Michael Grabe, Pitt, chair Chakra Chennubhotla, Pitt Bino John, Pitt Kathryn Roeder, CMU Joel Stiles, CMU, chair Ge Yang, CMU
Student Advising	Assists first- and second-year students with course selection, until the successful completion of the comprehensive exam, when each student’s Thesis Committee takes over monitoring student progress. Meets before each course registration deadline. Also meets in August to propose schedules for incoming students.	Takis Benos, Pitt Veronica Hinman, CMU, chair Dan Zuckerman, Pitt, chair Eric Xing, CMU
Executive	Functions as a “Board of Directors” for the CPCB to provide oversight and advice on program development and management. This committee has 10 members, including the program directors and associate directors. Meets at least three times per year	Ivet Bahar, Pitt, Director Robert F. Murphy, CMU, Dir. Takis Benos, Pitt, Associate Dir. Russell Schwartz, CMU, Assoc. Director Carlos Camacho, Pitt Jaime Carbonell, CMU Bard Ermentrout, Pitt Graham Hatfull, Pitt Naftali Kaminski, Pitt Tom Mitchell, CMU Joel Stiles, CMU Yu-Li Wang, CMU
Seminar Series		Carlos Camacho, Pitt Chris Langmead, CMU
Journal Club Committee		Bino John, Pitt Joel Stiles, CMU

In addition to these specialized committees, all training faculty belong to, and participate in, the CPCB Program Faculty meetings held twice a year, at the end of the Fall and Spring semesters, and in an annual Program Retreat held off-site shortly after the arrival of each new class. The purpose of the Faculty meetings is the discussion of the programmatic issues brought about by the individual committees or other institutional developments, the evaluation of all students (discussed one by one), and the approval of the student evaluation letters that are to be sent to each student at the end of each semester.