Degrees in Epidemiology

The Department of Work Environment (DWE) offers Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Epidemiology. The Department also offers a related graduate certificate in Environmental Risk Assessment.

Faculty: David Kriebel, Laura Punnett, Don Milton, Susan Sama, David Wegman
Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of disease in human populations. Today's occupational epidemiologist is called upon to identify previously unsuspected diseases caused by exposure to hazards in the work environment, to assess the health risks of new technologies, to recommend a scientific basis for the setting of occupational standards to protect worker health, and to evaluate the ability of control technologies to limit health risks. Epidemiology is a highly interdisciplinary and rapidly evolving discipline that uses increasingly sophisticated statistical methods to quantify the risks of low level, long term exposures to hazardous physical and chemical agents. Similar sissues pertain to the study of environmental exposures through air, water, and other routes.

To meet the need for epidemiologists in industry, government and academia, the student in the epidemiology concentration will be trained in the full spectrum of epidemiologic methods and will acquire the necessary background in the related fields of biostatistics, physiology, industrial hygiene, and ergonomics.

Master's Degree in Epidemiology
All Epidemiology students must take the Work Environment Core as well as the following 21 credits of concentration courses. There are nine credits of electives.

Concentration Required Courses

Course #	Course name	Credits
19.576	Intermediate Biostatistics	3
19.674	Applied Regression Modeling	3
19.682	Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology	3
19.687	Quantitative Models in Environ. Health Assessment	3
19.610	Exposure Assessment	3
	OR:
19.638	Methods of Work Analysis	3
19.683	Risk Assessment	3
	OR:
19.690	Critical Reviews of Occupational Health Standards	3
19.733	Research Project	3

Possible electives include:
19.540 Occupational Safety Engineering
19.542 Human Factors
19.634 Cardiopulmonary Effects of Work
19.643 Healthy Work Organization Design
19.670 Occupational Cancer Epidemiology
19.678 Occupational Respiratory Disease Epidemiology
19.680 Introduction to SAS
19.684 Musculoskeletal Epidemiology
19.685 Acute Injury Epidemiology
19.686 Mathematical Statistics
19.725 Epidemiologic Theory
19.690 Critical Reviews of Occupational Health Standards

Doctoral Degree in Epidemiology
Required courses include: a graduate course in mathematical statistics (19.686), one in pathophysiology, Epidemiologic Theory (19.725) and additional advanced courses in epidemiology and biostatistics. Examples of areas of research in which doctoral work is encouraged include: respiratory epidemiology, injury epidemiology, exposure modeling for epidemiology, occupational disease surveillance, epidemiology of musculoskeletal disorders, and occupational cancer epidemiology.