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• McIntyre Medical Sciences Building, Room 1021
• 3655 Promenade Sir-William-Osler
• Montreal, Quebec H3G 1Y6

• Telephone: 514-398-4316
• Fax: 514-398-7452
• Website:

Physiology has its roots in many of the basic sciences including biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics. Physiology overlaps with other biomedical sciences such as anatomy, biochemistry, pathology and pharmacology, and with psychology and biomedical engineering, and is one of the prime contributors of basic scientific knowledge to the clinical medical sciences.

Members of the Department of Physiology at McGill are engaged in studies dealing with molecules, single cells, or entire systems in a variety of vertebrates, including man. A wide range of interest and expertise is represented, including cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal and renal physiology, the physiology of exercise, neurophysiology, endocrinology, immunology, biophysics, and biomathematics. Some faculty members have formal or informal links with the departments of mathematics, physics, electrical engineering, and chemistry, and with clinical departments (medicine, surgery, pediatrics, neurology, obstetrics, psychiatry, anesthesia), reflecting and reinforcing the close ties between physiology and other disciplines.

Graduates at the B.Sc. level have found rewarding careers in teaching, in secondary schools and CEGEPs, government service, and laboratory technical assistance, such as in pharmaceutical houses, hospitals, and institutions of higher learning. Moreover, physiology provides an excellent background for medicine, dentistry or other postgraduate work, in such fields as physiology, experimental medicine, pharmacology, biochemistry, or physiological psychology.

The programs offered in Physiology differ in their orientation but they all have a common core of material covering cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal and renal physiology, neurophysiology, endocrinology, and immunology. The specified U1 courses are identical for all programs except the Joint Major programs in Physiology and Physics, Physiology and Mathematics, and the Joint Honours program in Immunology, and thus afford the student maximal flexibility before deciding on a particular program to follow in U2 and U3.

Academic advising is compulsory. All new students to the Department, Freshman and CEGEP, must see an adviser upon entering the program. Contact the Student Affairs Officer at 514-398-3689 for more information.

Returning students are required to consult with their advisers during the advising period for returning students, and regularly throughout the year. It is important that graduating students have their record checked by their adviser at the beginning of their final year.

The difference between Complementary courses and Required courses is that Complementary courses are defined as offering an element of choice, however small that choice may be. Students may choose from the two (or more) courses specified within Complementary Course segments of a program description, but ONLY from those. For further information, refer to University Regulations and Information > Course Information and Regulations.