Environmental Health Sciences
For detailed information about our PhD program, including advising, program requirements, and dissertation, please consult the Department of Environmental Health Sciences Doctoral Student Handbook.
Overview
The PhD degree in Environmental Health Sciences prepares students for advanced research, teaching, and leadership environmental health positions in academia, not-for-profit, government, and the private sector. Doctoral students develop competencies in environmental health risk assessment and policy, and the physiological, cellular, and molecular mechanisms of environmental agents on human disease and health. Upon completion of the PhD, graduates will be able to identify important public health issues related to environmental health sciences and use advanced scientific methods and techniques to conduct independent, scholarly research to solve problems related to how environmental exposures affect human health.
Competencies
The PhD degree program utilizes classroom instruction, seminars, journal club qualifying exams and, most importantly, research to train students to become independent researchers in environmental health sciences.
Upon satisfactory completion of the PhD degree in EHS, graduates will have achieved competencies enabling them to:
- Conceive, develop, and test hypotheses by conducting original research through scientific methodologies, leading to advances in basic and applied knowledge in environmental health sciences.
- Communicate effectively, both written and orally, the results of research findings to scientific peers, students, other professionals, and the public.
- Identify significant gaps in the current basic knowledge in environmental health sciences, and develop approaches for filling those gaps.
- Develop and utilize grantsmanship skills to write a cohesive research grant proposal in a standardized format, which incorporates a feasible and appropriate budget, to address significant environmental health studies issues.
- Develop and conduct research on 1) exposure assessment for toxic substances and environmental epidemiology that includes a strong exposure analysis component as well as a solid background in epidemiology, data analysis, and statistical methods; 2) environmental epigenetics, molecular biology/biochemistry, and toxicology, 3) prevention and mitigation of the adverse impacts of environmental exposures on human health, OR 4) the scientific basis for adverse and disruptive human health effects from climate change, including direct, indirect and complex/downstream processes, and develop climate and health associated research to address important gaps in climate and health knowledge.