University of Maryland
Graduate Catalog Fall 2009

Public Health: Epidemiology Ph.D. (EPID)

Faculty

Associate Dean
Kleinman, Dushanka,

Chair
Young, Deborah S. R. ,

Professor
Lee, Mei-Ling, Ph.D.,

Associate Professor
Carter-Pokras, Olivia,

Assistant Professor
He, Xin, Khan, Maria, Lee, Sunmin, Wu, Tongtong, Zhang, Guangyu,

Research Assistant Professor
Saksvig, Brit,

Abstract

The Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics is pleased to offer a Ph.D. program in Epidemiology. Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of the varying rates of diseases, injuries, and other health states in human populations. As the fundamental science underlying public health practice, epidemiology provides the conceptual and practical tools necessary for the study of public health problems and the design of adequate control measures.

The goal of the Ph.D. program in Epidemiology is to train students for future careers in epidemiologic research and leadership in public health, with a particular emphasis on improving health and reducing health disparities in local communities, Maryland, and the nation. The Ph.D. program provides training in epidemiologic methods and content to prepare future public health researchers and academic faculty. Students are taught to apply epidemiologic methods to important public health issues to better understand the causes and prevention of human disease. Graduates will be able to work within an interdisciplinary framework with public health professionals from various backgrounds to accomplish research goals. All doctoral students will complete seven core courses, six substantive area courses, four courses in specialty cognate areas, five research methods courses, and 12 dissertation credits.

The proximity of the University of Maryland, College Park to the nation's capital offers prospective students unparalleled opportunities for internships and research experiences in public health, including placements at the National Institutes of Health, the CDC Washington Office, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Children's National Medical Center, the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and many other national, state, and local health agencies. The diversity of cultural and socioeconomic groups, communities, industries, and health organizations provides a rich environment for learning, research, public policy analysis, and service.

Admissions Information

To apply to the doctoral program in Epidemiology, applicants must complete the University of Maryland Graduate School application and provide additional information as described below under "Application Requirements". The Graduate School application and instructions can be found online at http://www.gradschool.umd.edu/gss/admission.htm. The doctoral program in Epidemiology accepts only full-time students.

Application Deadlines

 

Fall

Spring
Domestic Applicants:
U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents

Domestic Applicant Deadlines


To be considered for Fall enrollment completed applications must be received by January 15 .


This program does not accept applications for this semester.

 


International Applicants:
Applicants from Outside the U.S. or U.S. Citizens / Permanent Residents with Non-U.S. Credentials

IMPORTANT:   International Applicants and U.S. Applicants with Non-U.S. Credentials must follow the domestic deadlines above if they are earlier than the deadlines listed below.   

Applicants seeking admission under F (Student) or J (Exchange Visitor) visas

February 1
If Domestic Deadline is after Feb. 1

June 1
If Domestic Deadline is after Jun. 1

Applicants seeking admission under A, E, G, H, I, and L visas and immigrants

May 1
If Domestic Deadline is after May 1

October 1
If Domestic Deadline is after Jun. 1

U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents with foreign credentials

May 15
If Domestic Deadline is after May 15

October 31
If Domestic Deadline is after Oct.31
 

Application Requirements

Applications for the doctoral program in Epidemiology are reviewed with consideration to the following criteria:

  1. Minimum 3.0 undergraduate GPA
  2. Undergraduate and graduate transcripts
  3. GRE scores taken within the past 5 years
  4. 3 letters of recommendation that address the applicant's academic capabilities and probability of success in graduate school
  5. Statement of goals and interests and their congruence with those of the program
  6. Relevant academic/work experience, including previous coursework in human biology or physiology, demonstration of proficiency in statistical methods and statistical software, and research presentation or publication experience.

Applicants to the PhD in Epidemiology program should be sure to use the major code EPID when selecting the program on the Graduate School Application.

Degree Requirements

Doctor of Philosophy in Epidemiology (Ph.D.)

The Ph.D. program in Epidemiology requires a minimum of 58 graduate credit hours beyond the master's degree in Epidemiology or Public Health, including 12 credit hours of dissertation research. Students entering the program with a master's degree in a field other than epidemiology are required to take epidemiology and biostatistics coursework to gain competency in these content and method areas. A minimum of 12 credit hours in a cognate area (e.g. Physical Activity Epidemiology) is required for specialization (included in the 58 credits). Students admitted to the Ph.D. program advance to candidacy upon completing required coursework and passing a written comprehensive examination with an oral defense. After advancement to candidacy, students must complete a dissertation proposal and oral defense, followed by successful completion of the doctoral dissertation and oral defense.

Students in the Ph.D. program will be able to pursue an epidemiology degree with or without content specialization. Currently, one specialization area is available: Physical Activity Epidemiology. Although physical inactivity is a leading public health problem in Maryland and the nation, our epidemiology program will be the first to offer a specialization in physical activity. Students who choose to specialize in Physical Activity Epidemiology will take graduate courses offered in the Department of Kinesiology to gain expertise in this content area. Students who choose not to specialize in a content area will take additional graduate-level elective courses in epidemiology selected in consultation with their advisors. The doctoral program in Epidemiology accepts only full-time students.

Facilities and Special Resources

Olivia Carter-Pokras, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor and epidemiologist. Dr. Carter-Pokras has conducted health disparities research in the Federal government and academia. Her research has mainly focused on the intersection of epidemiology and health policy to address Latino health. She is the Principal Investigator for a NHLBI cultural competency and health disparities academic award, a state tobacco disparities evaluation contract, and a community based participatory research grant from NICHD on oral health of Latino and Ethiopian children and their mothers. She conducts health assessments of Latinos in Baltimore and Montgomery County in close partnership with local government and community based organizations. Dr. Carter-Pokras is a member of the Board of Directors for the American College of Epidemiology, and the Executive Board of the American Public Health Association.

Xin He, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, He completed his PhD in Statistics from the University of Missouri. His previous degrees include a B.S. in Statistics and a B.A. in Economics, both from Peking University. His area of research interest is in the areas of longitudinal and survival analysis, with a current emphasis on semiparametric analysis of panel count data.

Maria Khan, P.h.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. She received her Ph.D. in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina. Dr. Khans training in international health, womens health, infectious diseases, drug dependence as a determinant of HIV/AIDS, epidemiologic and demographic analytic methods provide her with the unique capabilities to study the social determinants of STI/HIV in local and global populations.

Dushanka Kleinman, D.D.S., M.P.H. is a Professor and Associate Dean of Research in the School of Public Health. She is a dentist and a board certified specialist in dental public health. Her research has included epidemiologic studies of dental, oral and craniofacial diseases, oral cancer and HIV-related conditions. She has participated in the development of several Surgeon General reports and was the co-executive editor of Oral Health in America: A Report of the Surgeon General (2000). Dr. Kleinman has a particular interest in enhancing the understanding and elimination of health disparities, with a focus on the role of factors that transcend health conditions such as health determinants, health promotion interventions and health literacy.

Dr. Mei-Ling Ting Lee is Professor and Director of the Biostatistics Research Center at the University of Maryland. Her research is focused in the following areas: (a) Statistical Methods for High Throughput Data Obtained from Microarray Gene Expression Studies, Genomewide Association Studies, and Proteomic Studies using Mass Spectrometry; (b) Threshold Regression Models for Risk Assessments: with Applications in Cancer, Environmental Research and Occupational Exposure; (c) Rank-based Nonparametric Tests for Correlated Data: with Applications in Epidemiology and Genomics; (d) Lifetime Data Analysis; (e) Multivariate Distributional Theory and Applications; (f) Statistical Applications in Microbiology and Pharmacokinetics.

Sunmin Lee, Sc.D. is an Assistant Professor and a social epidemiologist with a main research interest in social determinants of health. She has examined the effects of job and caregiving stress, marital transitions, and socioeconomic status on cardiovascular disease and cognitive decline in elderly using cohort studies. Her recent work focuses on investigating multilevel (individual-, neighborhood-, and school-level) predictors of adolescent obesity trends using longitudinal data, and investigating health disparities of Asian Americans.

Brit I. Saksvig, Ph.D., M.H.S. is a Research Assistant Professor. Dr. Saksvig received her masters and doctorate degrees from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research interests focus on dietary and physical activity behaviors and their association with the prevention of chronic disease. Dr. Saksvig's primary interest is in developing and evaluating school and community-based interventions for children and adolescents.

Tongtong Wu, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor and biostatistician. Her current research interests include survival analysis, computational statistics, and statistical genetics. For survival analysis, she focuses on semi/nonparametric modeling and two-stage design. She works on multicategory classification and variable selection in the field of computational statistics. This series of works can be applied to cancer classification, genetic determination of diseases, etc. Dr. Wu has also worked on longitudinal data analysis when she joined a research group studying HIV.

Deborah Rohm Young, Ph.D. is a physical activity epidemiologist with research experience and publications in physical activity assessment in community-based populations, evaluation of health benefits associated with physical activity, and determinants and adherence of physical activity behavior. Her research interests focus on physical activity behavior and its association with cardiovascular disease prevention. She has a primary interest in developing and evaluating community-based physical activity interventions, particularly in population subgroups that are known to be underactive. Much of her research has focused on working with minority and female samples. She has led and participated in a number of extramurally-funded projects evaluating the effects of community-based interventions on physical activity, obesity and weight gain prevention, and cardiovascular disease risk factors.

Guangyu Zhang, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor. She obtained her PhD in 2007 from the Department of Biostatistics at the University of Michigan, School of Public Health. Her major research interest is in the missing data field. She is also interested in the applications of biostatistics to the public health-related topics, such as obesity, hypertension, HIV/AIDs, aging, and cancer.

Financial Assistance

Contact Information

Department Chair: Deborah Rohm Young, PhD
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics 3310 HHP Building (#255) University of Maryland College Park
MD  20742
Telephone: 301-405-0271
dryoung@umd.edu

http://www.hhp.umd.edu/epib/

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