PhD in Environmental Health

The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) program in Environmental Health provides students with specialized training and research experience in environmental epidemiology, exposure science, spatial epidemiology/GIS, climate and health, risk assessment, and toxicology. Interested doctoral students can also participate in the Graduate Program in Urban Biogeoscience and Environmental Health (URBAN), a traineeship that focuses on tackling urban environmental challenges through interdisciplinary training, workshops, and internships. For more details on requirements specific to URBAN, please see the URBAN website.

Our program is one of a small number of academic units nationally that specializes in investigating exposure-related health outcomes in community settings, with an emphasis on environmental justice. Faculty are engaged with policy makers, community organizations, and vulnerable populations, working across numerous countries and domestically at the national, state, and local levels. Our dedicated faculty are committed to providing trainees with research opportunities that are consistent with a student’s research interests and that draw from our department’s experience conducting rigorous, innovative, and socially engaged research. Our graduates successfully obtain positions as postdoctoral research fellows and faculty members at academic research institutions; as senior scientists at environmental consulting companies, nonprofit organizations, and other private industries; and as senior scientists at regulatory health and other government agencies.

To receive the doctoral degree, candidates entering the doctoral program must complete the equivalent of 64 units (16 graduate-level courses), complete three research rotations, pass a qualifying exam, and complete a dissertation. The research rotations begin upon entering the program and provide students the opportunity to develop research skills and clarify their research interests. URBAN internships can qualify as research rotation experiences. To prepare for their qualifying exam and to engage in dissertation research, students design a set of courses with their advisor, in addition to the required courses below. Candidates who have already earned a related master’s degree must take eight graduate-level courses (32 units) beyond the master’s degree and at least 16 units of the coursework must be in environmental health.

Learning Outcomes

The training program provides knowledge, experience, and training in core disciplines to allow for critical thinking in research design, interpretation, and translation.

Upon completing the PhD in Environmental Health, students are able to:

• Communicate the basic characteristics of major chemical, physical, and biological hazards and the properties that govern the hazards’ behavior in the environment.
• Explain the scientific characteristics (e.g., route of exposure, dose response, mode of action) of major chemical, physical, and biological hazards that result in human health risk.
• Explain and analyze genetic, physiologic, and social factors that affect the susceptibility to adverse health outcomes following exposure to environmental hazards.
• Critically evaluate and interpret the hypothesis, experimental design, methods, and results presented in a paper from a technical journal article in an environmental health discipline (toxicology, epidemiology, exposure assessment, environmental policy).
• Identify data gaps and formulate testable hypotheses about critical questions in environmental health (epidemiology, toxicology, exposure assessment, environmental policy).
• Design and implement data collection strategies and rigorous evaluations to test hypotheses using novel or current techniques.
• Analyze and interpret environmental health data.
• Identify appropriate intervention strategies for specific environmental health problems.
• Prepare scientific manuscripts for publication in peer-reviewed journals in the field of environmental health, and
• Communicate scientific results at national and/or international conferences in the field of environmental health.

Required Courses

• SPH BS 723 Introduction to Statistical Computing (4 units) or BS 730 Introduction to R: Software for Statistical Computing (4 units)
• SPH EH 710 Physiological Mechanisms of Health and Disease (4 units)
• SPH EH 730 Methods in Environmental Health Sciences (4 units)
• SPH EH 768 Toxicology for Environmental Health and Epidemiology (4 units)
• SPH EH 805 Environmental Health Science, Policy, and Law (4 units)
• SPH EP 714 Introduction to Epidemiology (4 units)
• SPH PH 700 Foundations of Public Health (0 units)

Students complete their remaining units from courses in the following recommended major training areas: Environmental Epidemiology, Exposure Science, and Toxicology. These major training areas as well as two minor training areas serve as the basis for the qualifying exam. Students and advisors work together to select appropriate courses in each of the training areas. Details on training areas are in the PhD in Environmental Health guidebook, available on the program website.

In addition, doctoral students take part in a weekly seminar series that focuses on topics chosen each term by the department’s faculty and students. Recent topics include commercial determinants of health, action-oriented environmental health research, novel methods in exposure science, PFAS, and racism and its implications for environmental health disparities. Additionally, a monthly proseminar offers an informal setting in which students may present on their own evolving research interests or hold sessions on a range of topics (e.g., preparing a CV, grant-writing, reviewing manuscripts) intended to help them develop their careers, and a journal club provides the opportunity for engagement with faculty on interpretation of scientific manuscripts.

After completing coursework and passing qualifying examinations, students work on their dissertation full time. The dissertation demonstrates to the student’s thesis committee that the degree candidate has designed, performed, and reported on substantial independent research in their chosen field. It is an original research effort judged to meet the publication standards of peer-reviewed journals in the candidate’s field of concentration. Students must adhere to dissertation submission deadlines and requirements.

All PhD students must adhere to the Doctoral Graduation Calendar in preparing and submitting their dissertation.

For contact information, please visit the School of Public Health website.