Department of Community Medicine
PhD Program Overview
The PhD in Public Health Sciences is a degree for scientist-practitioners in the area of prevention of premature mortality, morbidity and disability resulting from communicable disease, chronic disease and injury. The program will feature a common first year core curriculum that includes intensive training in public health research methods, epidemiology and biostatistics. The program will offer two specialist tracks in distinct areas of public health: Social & Behavioral Sciences, and Population Epidemiology & Biostatistics.
The Social and Behavioral Sciences track will feature public health-specific coursework in social and behavioral theory, qualitative and quantitative public health research methods, social and behavioral risk factor measurement, multivariate statistics, public health needs assessment, intervention design, graduate electives in topical areas and advanced research. See the full Social and Behavioral Sciences track curriculum here.
The Population Epidemiology and Biostatistics track will feature coursework in epidemiology, biostatistics, research design, multivariate data analysis, mortality and survival (medical demography), chronic disease epidemiology, secondary data analysis, categorical data analysis, topical graduate electives and advanced research. See the full Population Epidemiology and Biostatistics track curriculum here.
Course Work Summary
The program features a common undifferentiated curriculum for the first year. During this time students can elect one of the two tracks in which to matriculate. The first year will feature a seminar series for faculty to introduce their research to students. At the conclusion of the first year summer semester students will be matched with a mentor. As in any public health doctoral program, key components of the proposed core-integrated first year are a series of courses in epidemiology, scientific integrity and ethics and research and statistical methodology. In the second year of course work students will engage in “required electives” for their chosen track. The second year features advanced methods and theory with additional research opportunities. In the third and fourth years students will begin and complete comprehensive examinations and the dissertation proposal and writing process.
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