EPI Celebrates 30th Anniversary of Doctoral Program.
In a wide-ranging series of presentations from distinguished alumni, the SPH Department of Epidemiology observed the 30th Anniversary of the formal establishment of its doctoral program.
The Oct. 17 symposium featured opening remarks from Theodore Colton, professor and chair emeritus of the Department of Epidemiology, who recounted how the department was initially part of a combined Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. In 1984, Colton, as Epidemiology chair, initiated the Epidemiology Doctoral Program, the first doctoral degree program at the School.
The event also marked the first public announcement of the Theodore Colton Fellowship Fund in Epidemiology, which will provide future support for doctoral students in the SPH Department of Epidemiology. To inspire giving to the fellowship fund, Colton announced a matching gift challenge and will match additional contributions to the fund, dollar for dollar, up to a total of $20,000.
Current Epidemiology Chair Martha Werler (SPH ’89) added her own recollections of the past 30 years and introduced the individual presenters, all of whom are continuing the link to the past by educating new generations of epidemiology students.
George Seage (SPH ‘91), professor and program director in the Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases at Harvard School of Public Health, discussed the role of epidemiology in combatting HIV/AIDS.
Yvette Cozier (SPH ‘04) an assistant professor of epidemiology at SPH, gave a personal recounting of how her research at the Slone Epidemiology Center explores the social and genetic determinants of health in African-American women, with a specific focus on the influence of factors such as racism, neighborhood socioeconomic status, and genetics in the development of cancer, cardiovascular and pulmonary disease.
Jaimie Gradus (SPH ‘09), an assistant professor at the schools of Medicine and Public Health, presented her own reflections with “Psychiatric Epidemiology Then and Now: Military, Methods, and Me,” which introduced her work as a researcher at the National Center for PTSD at the VA Boston Healthcare System
“The future of epidemiology: Where do we go from here?” was the topic explored by Timothy Lash (SPH ‘99), a professor at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. That question was also answered, in part, by a poster session displaying some of the recent quality research by current doctoral students and young faculty.