Bioinformatics, also known as computational biology, is the study of biological systems through computational and statistical models. Molecular Biology is the study of the molecular components of living things. This major requires knowledge of biology, computer science, and information technology.
Rensselaer is one of the few universities to offer an undergraduate program in this emerging field. Most of the instructors maintain active research programs in different aspects of computational biology, from database analysis to molecular simulations.
Graduates are encouraged to continue their studies in one of the growing number of worldwide computational biology graduate programs. While those who enter the workplace often are hired into the pharmaceutical industry, medical informatics, agricultural bioinformatics, database management, or the biotech industry.