The Program in Public Health offers three PhD programs: in Public Health with a choice of two concentrations: Global Health or Disease Prevention; in Environmental Health Sciences; and in Epidemiology:
M.S./Ph.D. in Environmental Health Sciences
Not yet accredited by CEPH
1. Develop a broad knowledge of principles of environmental and occupational health sciences and apply these principles in the context of public health.
2. Conceive, develop, conduct, and interpret original research using a range of approaches, leading to advances in knowledge, methods, and practices in environmental and/or occupational health.
3. Develop and demonstrate written and oral communications skills by preparing papers, summaries, briefings and presentations regarding environmental and/or occupational health.
Ph.D. in Epidemiology
Not yet accredited by CEPH
1. Define, calculate and interpret measures of disease frequency and measures of association between exposures and outcomes;
2. Describe the major epidemiologic research study designs and their advantages and limitations;
3. Describe the major sources of bias in epidemiologic research (confounding, selection bias and measurement error) and the ways to evaluate and reduce the bias;
4. Define and evaluate effect modification;
5. Understand and differentiate between commonly used terms in epidemiology, including chance, bias and confounding, and approaches to mitigate the effects of each;
6. Effectively communicate methods, assumptions and results of an epidemiologic study, both orally and in writing;
7. Competency to plan and conduct a review of the existing peer-reviewed literature and of other sources in order to describe the current evidence for a specific scientific question;
8. Apply regression, classical methods of analysis of categorical data, and other appropriate statistical approaches to analyze epidemiologic data;
9. Demonstrate proficiency with a statistical software package, such as SAS or R to analyze and interpret epidemiologic data; and
10. Develop a research proposal that presents the study aims, scientific background, public health significance, and the detailed methods for carrying out the epidemiologic study.
1. Formulate study questions that will advance scientific knowledge about a topic of public health importance;
2. Develop study procedures for the protection of rights of human subjects;
3. Competency to responsibly conduct research and to align with all relevant ethical standards and laws;
4. Make a clear oral presentation on the design and results of an epidemiologic study;
5. Demonstrate expertise in a substantive area of disease etiology, disease prevention, or clinical epidemiology;
6. Perform all the steps of conducting a hypothesis-driven epidemiologic study, from developing hypotheses, to designing, analyzing, and interpreting results, to writing up findings in the form of a publication-quality manuscript, as demonstrated by the PhD dissertation, which encourages production of two to three manuscripts judged to be suitable for publication.