The department was founded in 1947 as home to a graduate degree program in Biochemistry and Nutrition, with our first PhD degrees awarded in 1950. In 1955, the department was expanded to include an undergraduate degree program in Biochemistry leading to the adoption of today’s title, the Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics. BCBP strives to be an intellectually robust and welcoming community of scholars with a common interest in integrating chemistry, biology, mathematics, and physics to understand the molecular basis of life. In 1985, the department created an undergraduate degree program in Genetics.