Ph.D. in Environmental Health

Program Overview

This PhD program in environmental health provides students with a comprehensive understanding of the field, encompassing epidemiology, toxicology, exposure assessment, and policy. It prepares graduates to work in various settings, including public health, academia, and the private sector, equipping them with critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and expertise to address emerging environmental health issues.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

This program provides graduate students with broad experience in environmental health. The program is guided by the concepts and principles as delineated by the National Environmental Health Association, which defines environmental health as “the science and practice of preventing human injury and illness and promoting well-being by: identifying and evaluating environmental sources and hazardous agents and limiting exposures to hazardous physical, chemical, and biological agents in air, water, soil, food and other environmental media or settings that may adversely affect human health.” The program also seeks to understand the positive impact of built and natural environments on mental and physical health. The flexible nature of this program allows students to design their graduate coursework to meet specific professional goals and will prepare students to work in a number of settings including public and private sectors as well as academia. The goal is to provide students with critical analytic tools, subject-matter expertise, and problem-solving skills to be at the forefront of leadership and scholarship in the field of environmental health. As an inherently multidisciplinary field, the PhD program strives to have students have broad exposure to the core sciences/pillars in environmental health (epidemiology, toxicology, exposure assessment, and policy) to be successfully collaborate and work across the field, while allowing students to pursue a depth of knowledge in a specific subject matter area that are required of all doctoral programs.

Learning Objectives:

Evaluate, qualitatively and quantitatively, risks of exposures emanating from built and natural environments of public health concern. Anticipate emerging environmental health issues. Assess health impacts of environmental exposures. Design and develop control and remediation strategies to mitigate environmental hazards. Implement management strategies for achieving programmatic goals in environmental health. Develop strategies to obtain compliance within an environmental health regulatory framework. Communicate environmental risk to technical and lay populations.