MS Program Overview

Program Mission

Our mission is to prepare students for meaningful careers that provide opportunities to advocate for and implement pharmaceutical innovations to meet ever-changing healthcare challenges through relevant, rigorous, and socially informed coursework.

Program Details

Innovative, Impactful, Accessible

Leaders in the psychoactive pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries – especially in the rapid-growth areas of psychedelic, entheogen, and cannabinoid research and application – are seeking employees with advanced degrees, appropriate training, and real-world experience. The Psychoactive Pharmaceutical Investigation Master’s program from the University of Wisconsin–Madison was designed from the ground up as an interdisciplinary online curriculum that prepares you to meet these needs, while giving you the background and in-demand skills needed to begin your career with an advantage or effectively transition into this exciting subfield. Graduates of this first-of-its-kind degree program will have the unique credentials to compete as outstanding applicants in industrial, not-for-profit, or academic research environments.

Importantly, the UW–Madison Master’s program in Psychoactive Pharmaceutical Investigation is not only the first accredited degree option for those students interested in pursuing the advanced study of psychedelic science, but is also dedicated to bringing this world-class educational opportunity to a truly global audience.

– from article “Psychedelic Research as a Career Path:
A Roundtable Discussion with Early Career Researchers in the Field”
Psychedelic Med (New Rochelle). 2024 Mar 12;2(1):44–59.
doi: 10.1089/psymed.2023.0053

Earn your degree from Experts

Program instructors are active clinicians, clinicians, researchers, and scholars with expertise in neuropharmacology, neuroscience, regulatory affairs, research ethics, biostatistics, pharmacokinetics, psychiatry, addiction medicine, counselling psychology, history of medicine, cultural studies, human ecology, and beyond. Combined, they have decades of clinical experience, dozens of active psychoactive pharmaceutical research projects, hundreds of successful graduate trainees, and thousands of original publications. Their numerous leadership roles, appointments, and consultancies support a robust network of international connections across the research and scholarly societies, not-for-profit institutes, governmental agencies, and industry partners.

How you’ll learn

• 30-credit curriculum, with flexibility to complete in 1 – 3 years
• Degree can be completed entirely online
• Face-to-face options are available for some elective courses, held on the UW–Madison campus