Each Program has its own steering committee to provide students with personal attention and guidance. Steering committee members are conversant with the broad range of opportunities available to students, and they work for a precise match of interest, aptitude, Program and course of study. Each of the 11 Programs establishes its own requirements for earning the Ph.D. degree, and progress toward the degree is monitored by the Program steering committee. The Ph.D. degree is granted by Washington University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Since the Division's inception in 1973, most graduates have gone on to practice science or pursue related endeavors with the training they received.
Many graduates hold academic positions as assistant, associate or full professors.
Others occupy senior positions in industry. Some graduates continue their education as postdoctoral fellows, while others pursue an eclectic and imaginative assortment of endeavors ranging from museum curator to editor of a university press. Today, students pursuing their education in the Division are preparing to make their own significant contributions to science, medicine and society. The biological sciences always have been among Washington University 's great strengths, and 19 Nobel Prize recipients have been associated with the University. More recently, Edwin Krebs, who trained at the School of Medicine, won the 1992 Nobel Prize for work describing enzymes that activate and deactivate cellular activity.