Career opportunities
The goal of the graduate group in Pharmacology and Toxicology is to provide broad training to prepare students for leadership roles in a variety of different specialties within these disciplines. Because our Graduate Group has a large number of faculty with very diverse interests, we are able to tailor training to fit individual needs of our students. Traditionally, career paths include:
- Biotech, pharmaceutical and chemical industries: These business employ graduates for new drug development, development and testing of new pesticides, assessment of the potential toxicity of new consumer products and industrial chemicals.
- Government:Our graduates hold leading positions in the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Center for Disease Control, the California State Department of Health as well as many other federal and state agencies whose focus is to protect the population from unsafe drugs and other chemicals.
- Academia: Graduates of our program have continued on an academic career track by pursuing postdoctoral research training positions, teaching at Universities and Colleges that grant undergraduate degrees and starting research laboratories of their own.
Traditional career paths do not always fit everyone’s needs. Some alumni have obtained business degrees and spent their career on the business side of drug development. Others have used their degrees to go into subspecialty areas such as forensic toxicology or have started their own, very successful companies. Still others are private consultants.