The educational mission of the Epidemiology & Biostatistics PhD Program is to train students using an integrated approach that draws from the population and quantitative health sciences. These include global, population, public, and community health, biostatistics, epidemiology, genomic epidemiology, and computational biology. This training provides the foundation for trainees to play integral roles in successfully solving our most pressing health problems.
To develop into the research leaders expected of our graduates, each student will take a common set of first year core courses that provides extensive exposure to each of the areas noted above. By the end of their first year students will choose a mentor and lab (wet or dry) in which to do their dissertation work. Research areas span all of the above and often combine these approaches with the expectation that cross-disciplinary studies will develop broader and more complete solutions to complex public health problems.
As part of their training all students will develop both a broad set of skills and competencies needed to assume positions of leadership in cutting edge research as well as in-depth expertise in specific areas of particular relevance to their research projects. These will be developed through a combination of demanding didactic coursework as well as individualized training within each research group led by their mentor.
A key component of our training program is to engage students in as many collaborative roles as practical. This will serve the important goal of giving each student a means to understand how to study the multiple determinants of health risk and outcomes, including biological and non-biological (environmental) influences, and the variation and disparity in outcomes.
Students will master the rigorous scientific and analytic methods necessary to be at the forefront of efforts to not only describe, but also effectively evaluate and improve health. Exposure to cutting edge research will be facilitated by our department-wide seminar that includes talks by world-leading experts both from off- and on-campus. As part of their training all students will participate in these seminars, including as speakers. This will help develop the necessary communication skills that is expected of successful researchers.
Graduates from accredited universities and colleges will be considered for admission to the department. All applicants must satisfy both ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½ and department requirements for graduate admission. All incoming PhD students take a required common core curriculum, followed by additional coursework as determined by their mentoring or dissertation committees.
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