Can you become a professor with an MD?

<p>I saw an assistant prof's profile on a university website and it said he got an MD but it never mentioned PhD. I thought only way of going to academia was to get a PhD. Are MDs allowed to become profs as well?</p>

<p>Yes (10 char).</p>

<p>Those teaching med school basic sciences are generally PhD holders. But once you get to the clinicals, you can't teach something clinical without a clinical degree. So yes, MD's do much of the clinical teaching. Some do it full time and are tenured, some are Clinical Prof's, and have a practice as well as teach.</p>

<p>sunnyflorida,</p>

<p>Here are some actual stats from Harvard Medical School:</p>

<p>Pathology: PhD, 9 MD, 2 Md-PhD 4</p>

<p>Genetics: PhD, 27 MD, 4 Md-PhD 3</p>

<p>Micro: PhD, 23 MD, 2 Md-PhD 2</p>

<p>wouldnt the pay be less if, as an MD, you work as a prof and do practice part-time? and would that be more work?</p>

<p>JetX, </p>

<p>If you are worried about money and workload, don't even think about academic medicine. No one does it for the money.</p>

<p>The MDs or MD/PhD Profs in my alma mater in NY not only taught med students and grad students but were also involved in research activities.</p>

<p>They all continue to have their own labs where they conduct fairly high level research in various depts such as Pharmacology, Pathology, Physiology, Genetics, and Public Health to name a few. They generally have MD, PhD, and MD/PhD students who work toward their dissertations.</p>

<p>These Profs generally teach a couple of courses/semester and spend most of their time in research labs with occasional sabbaticals.</p>

<p>What about teaching undergraduates? I am considering academic medicine and the prospect of teaching, esp. at the undergraduate level seems very appealing to me. Would I need to pursue a non-MD degree (ex. Masters of Science, MPH, PhD) to be able to do this? Also, how does one go about this after obtaining the MD? Would I have to wait for job openings? Sorry if these questions have been answered previously. Any info is appreciated. Thanks,</p>

<p>IMHO, it is rare for an MD to teach undergrads, because it is rare for an MD to be on a faculty other than for a medical school but it does happen. For instance Ken Kosik went from Harvard Medical School to UCSB. I strongly suspect he teaches at least one undergrad course at UCSB.</p>

<p>if i pursued a PhD track on medicine, how many years of fellowship/training does it take to become a professor? and can someone explain to me about tenure?</p>

<p>newmassdad: yes, i'm worried about money, but not workload to the same extant. i just love the idea of teaching young students and researching the rest of my life.</p>

<p>For those of you who are not sure about MDs as teaching faculty, I would suggest-</p>

<p>Pick a department/area (therapeutic or research) of your liking, select a Graduate school of biomedical science dept and check out how many MDs vs MD/PhDs, vs PhDs are listed in their departments as faculty.</p>

<p>You will find that you don't have to have an MD to teach but having an MD doesn't hurt in a research institute affiliated with a medical college. Having an MD/PhD helps you even better in terms of procuring NIH grants.</p>

<p>In regards to teaching undergrads- MDs are not necessary. Generally PhDs teach in undergrad schools.</p>

<p>Here are a couple of examples -</p>

<p><a href="http://info.med.yale.edu/diagrad/faculty/index.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://info.med.yale.edu/diagrad/faculty/index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/dept/neurology/n/aboutni/faculty.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/dept/neurology/n/aboutni/faculty.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>