PhD in Epidemiology

About

The Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics offers a course of study and academic research leading to a PhD degree in epidemiology. Students seeking the PhD degree in Epidemiology are usually interested in a research career, often in academia but possibly in industry or government. Conferral of the doctoral degree results from demonstrations of mastery of core training, familiarity with the current state of the science in one or more areas, and capability to make important contributions to knowledge in one or more areas of Epidemiology.

Our PhD degree program offers a sound foundation in epidemiologic and biostatistics methods, derived from both coursework and practical experience. Applicants to the program are selected, in part, on the basis of common interests with faculty. Thus our doctoral students become apprentice members of research teams involved with current, cutting-edge studies. To earn the PhD degree, students must complete required coursework and demonstrate evolving research potential and abilities culminating in a public defense of a research-based dissertation.

Learning Outcomes

• Define, calculate and interpret measures of disease frequency and measures of association between exposures and outcomes; 
• Describe the major epidemiologic research study designs and their advantages and limitations;
• Describe the major sources of bias in epidemiologic research (confounding, selection bias and measurement error) and the ways to evaluate and reduce the bias;
• Define and evaluate effect modification;
• Understand and differentiate between commonly used terms in epidemiology, including chance, bias and confounding, and approaches to mitigate the effects of each;
• Effectively communicate methods, assumptions and results of an epidemiologic study, both orally and in writing;
• 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;
• Apply regression, classical methods of analysis of categorical data, and other appropriate statistical approaches to analyze epidemiologic data;  
• Demonstrate proficiency with a statistical software package, such as SAS or R to analyze and interpret epidemiologic data; and 
• Develop a research proposal that presents the study aims, scientific background, public health significance, and the detailed methods for carrying out the epidemiologic study.
• Formulate study questions that will advance scientific knowledge about a topic of public health importance;
• Develop study procedures for the protection of rights of human subjects;
• Competency to responsibly conduct research and to align with all relevant ethical standards and laws;
• Make a clear oral presentation on the design and results of an epidemiologic study;
• Demonstrate expertise in a substantive area of disease etiology, disease prevention, or clinical epidemiology;
• 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.

Time to Degree

Nominal time to the PhD degree is four to five academic years of full-time study.

Career Opportunities

If you are interested in pursuing a PhD in epidemiology as a part of the UCI Medical Scientist Program (MSTP), learn more about the MSTP program ›