Our PhD students engage in full-time coursework for the first one to two years of the program, a minimum of 32 credits (with prior relevant master’s degree) or 64 credits (without prior relevant master’s degree), depending on level of preparation prior to admission.

The EH PhD program requires coursework in environmental health, epidemiology, and biostatistics. Coursework includes six required courses, four professional development courses (grant writing and teaching) courses in defined training areas, and electives.

Our research rotation program provides opportunities for students to engage in research during their first year in the PhD program while helping them identify and refine a dissertation topic. Specifically, students participate in a research rotation during each of their first three semesters (fall, spring, summer), with the goal of having their final research rotation align with their dissertation topic. Students work with their advisor to select research rotations based on their interests, which provides opportunities to work with different faculty members and gain experience on different projects.

Our program is committed to providing doctoral students with opportunities to develop professional grant writing and teaching skills. All doctoral students at BUSPH matriculating in Fall 2025 or later are required to take the grant writing and public health teaching course sequences. Through the public health teaching course, students participate in a teaching practicum experience to further their training.

Our PhD students participate in a doctoral seminar (every week), a doctoral professional development seminar (monthly), a journal club (monthly), and an annual research retreat, all of which represent key elements of our program.

• The Gijs van Seventer Environmental Health Seminar provides trainees with the opportunity to present and engage with invited speakers in an academic seminar that addresses substantive topics in environmental health.
• The Doctoral Professional Development seminar (proseminar) covers topics not typically addressed in traditional coursework but critical to professional development (e.g., strategies for preparing a manuscript, strategies for managing data, etc.).
• The Journal Club allows students to gain experience reviewing and critiquing scientific journal articles, stay abreast of the literature in the field, and become more familiar with diverse topics across the field of environmental health.
• The annual EH Department Retreat is held each fall, bringing together faculty, staff, and doctoral students. The overall goals of the research retreat are to: enhance the cohesiveness of faculty and students while sharing ideas and developing new opportunities; provide trainees with an additional opportunity to discuss their research; allow trainees to hear about ongoing research projects both within and outside the department; and create an event that facilitates the social and professional transition of new trainees and new faculty members in the program.

After the completion of coursework, each trainee submits an application to the Doctoral Committee for approval to take the departmental qualifying exams. Students typically complete the qualifying exam within the first 2 years of the doctoral program. The qualifying exam consists of a written methods examination covering foundational concepts in environmental health, and once successfully passed, is followed by a dissertation proposal in the form of a federal grant proposal. The dissertation proposal includes an oral defense.

Each student works closely with their advisor and dissertation committee while conducting their research and preparing their dissertation. The dissertation takes the form of 3 publishable papers, plus an abstract, introduction, and joint conclusion. Ultimately, students present their dissertations in a public forum that all individuals are welcome to attend and are followed by closed dissertation committee defenses.

We ensure that each of our admitted PhD students has all of the following:

• Full financial support, including stipend, tuition and fees, health insurance, a computer, and support for travel to scientific conferences;
• A faculty mentor with the experience and expertise necessary to train the student in their area of interest; and
• Research opportunities that are consistent with the student’s research interests and that can serve as the basis for their dissertation.

A T32 training grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (PI: Claus Henn) supports students (U.S. citizens are eligible), in combination with traineeships through the BU Graduate Program in Urban Biogeoscience and Environmental Health (PIs: Levy, Templer, Hutyra) (to which all students can apply), individual training awards, and individual research grants, to provide the resources necessary to ensure that our PhD students receive up to 5 years of full financial support.

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;
• 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.

Flannery Black-Ingersoll

Pronouns: she/her
Advisor: Amruta Nori-Sarma, PhD

Flannery used innovative environmental epidemiology methods to study how extreme weather (i.e. heat and flooding) affects public health and policy implications. She is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

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Pilar Botana Martinez

Pronouns: She/Her/Ella
Advisor: Patricia Fabian, ScD

Pilar did research at the intersection between indoor environmental health and heat, with a vulnerability lens. She prioritized research goals that were actionable and benefited overburdened communities. Her work quantified indoor heat exposure in urban heat islands, explored the resilience of buildings to overheating, and identified barriers to an equitable energy transition in affordable housing. Before joining the program, Pilar worked in the fields of architecture and urban planning for 18 years. She is currently a Research Scientist in the Department of Environmental Health at Boston University School of Public Health.

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Samantha Hall

Pronouns: she/hers

Advisor: Jessica H. Leibler, DrPH, MS

Samantha (Sam) studied the health of agricultural workers, to better understand the effects of environmental and agricultural exposures on human microbiomes. Her dissertation work focused on heat stress, metal exposure and urinary microbiome status in relation to kidney health in a population at high risk of kidney disease of uncertain etiology. She also worked with a community group (The Trustees of Reservations), advocating for policy changes to increase safety of city-sourced compost for community gardeners. She is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Keck School of Medicine at University of Southern California.

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Kathryn Rodgers

Pronouns: she/her

Advisor: Madeleine L. Scammell, DSc

Kathryn’s research interests included researching causes of chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology, finding strategies to reduce exposures to consumer product chemicals, and translating science for policy change. She is currently a Research Scientist in the Department of Environmental Health at Boston University School of Public Health.

 

Jocelyn Fimbres

Advisor: Madeleine L. Scammell, DSc

Jocelyn investigates environmental exposures related to the progression of chronic kidney disease of uncertain etiology (CKDu). She is validating biomarkers for early signs of kidney

function decline through epidemiological and toxicological tools. She is also investigating the kinetics of injury to the kidneys from these environmental exposures.

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Beverly Ge

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Advisor: Patricia Fabian, ScD

Beverly is interested in the intersection of air pollution, heat, public health, and sustainability. She is particularly motivated to conduct projects that can support immediate and tangible interventions in communities. Currently, she is exploring the use of indoor environmental quality monitors as decision tools for schools.

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Noelle Henderson

Advisors: Kevin James Lane, PhD, MA and Birgit G. Claus Henn, ScD

Noelle’s research interests include methodological approaches for assessing the effects of chemical mixtures, particularly for endocrine disrupting chemicals, on child health outcomes. She is also interested in investigating the effects of gestational exposures on reproductive and birth outcomes.

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Jonathan Lee

Pronouns: he/him

Advisor: Madeleine L. Scammell, DSc

Jonathan is broadly interested in investigating the design of the built environment through a public health lens, particularly in relation to heat exposures and health. Specific research interests include how transportation systems, land use decisions, and urban designs impact health and how to use public health as a catalyst for change.

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Emily Leonard

Advisor: Birgit G. Claus Henn, ScD

Emily is interested in applying environmental epidemiology methods to investigate how chemical mixtures affect reproductive, perinatal, and pediatric health, with an emphasis on vulnerable populations. Her dissertation work will focus on metal mixtures and novel exposure science methods to understand the relationship between metal exposure and childhood neurodevelopment.

 

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Jennifer Oliver

Advisor: Birgit G. Claus Henn, ScD

Jennifer investigates the relationship between early life exposures to perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and pulmonary health in children. In collaboration with Project Viva co-investigators at Harvard Medical School and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Jen is evaluating the relationship between PFAS and pulmonary function and growth between childhood and adolescence. She is most interested in the use of advanced epidemiologic methods to explore underlying mechanisms of exposure-disease relationships, especially longitudinal analysis.

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Erin Polka

Advisor: Jonathan Buonocore, ScD

Erin investigates the environmental health consequences of oil and gas development—analyzing drivers of health impacts and community risk perceptions at local and national scales. In partnership with HEET, she is evaluating how clean energy transitions can mitigate negative impacts from fossil fuel dependence. She aims to integrate exposure science, epidemiology, and policy to advance equitable solutions that protect both environmental health and vulnerable communities.

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Margaret Quaid

Pronouns: she/her

Advisor: Maria Argos, PhD

Margaret’s primary research interest is in identifying molecular mechanisms of disease resulting from chemical exposures. Her dissertation research focuses on evaluating the relationship between arsenic exposure and blood pressure trajectories across childhood and on whether these associations are mediated by alterations in DNA methylation, leveraging data from the Bangladesh Environmental Research in Children’s Health cohort. Margaret was recently awarded an NIH F31 grant to support her doctoral research.

Grace Betts

Pronouns: she/her

Advisor: Patricia Fabian, ScD

Grace is interested in investigating the health co-benefit implications of mitigation and adaptation strategies related to air pollution and heat on vulnerable and susceptible populations, especially those related to the built environment and urban planning and policy. This includes monitoring and evaluation of these strategies to better understand their public health benefits across contexts, such as levels of urbanicity or population subgroups.

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Lydia Lichtiger

Pronouns: she/her

Advisor: Maria Argos, PhD

Lydia is interested in the neurotoxic effects of air pollution during critical developmental windows, with an emphasis on the biological mechanisms underlying these associations. Her doctoral research examines associations between fine particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide exposures and epigenetic modifications, as well as decrements in cognitive function, in adolescents.

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Charlotte Robbins

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Advisor: Kevin Lane, PhD, MA

Charlotte is interested in participatory mixed methods approaches to understanding the effects of heat on cognitive decline and mental health in general population and occupational settings.

 

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Niouma Semega

Advisor: Jonathan I. Levy, ScD

Niouma's research interests encompass the innovative application of geospatial analysis and biostatistics to understand the spatial pattern of energy infrastructure, focusing particularly on critical issues related to air pollution, heat and vector-borne diseases. By integrating data driven methodologies, Niouma seeks to uncover the complex relationships between environmental factors and health outcomes, ultimately contributing to more effective public health interventions.

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Selene Vences

Jessica H. Leibler, DrPH, MS

Selene is a Health Policy Research Scholar through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She is an interdisciplinary mixed-methods researcher interested in developing interventions and policies to improve health among populations disproportionately affected by the cumulative impacts of extreme heat, structural injustices, and adverse experiences across the life course.

Maribel Carpenter

Advisor: Birgit G. Claus Henn, ScD

Maribel is interested in environmental toxins and their impact on reproductive and maternal health. She is particularly focused on endocrine disrupting chemicals, such as PFAS, PCBs, and Organochlorines, and their effects on vulnerable populations, including developing interpretable and impactful report-outs for research participants.

 

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Léa Feuerbacher

Advisor: Anoop Jain, DPH/DRPH

Léa’s research interests focus on global Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) through environmental epidemiology and mixed-methods research. She is particularly interested in understanding how water access, reliability, and sanitation conditions affect health in low-resource settings. Her work aims to generate evidence that can inform equitable water and sanitation policies and interventions.

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Brian Sousa

Advisor: Jonathan Buonocore, ScD

Brian is interested in the health impacts and co-benefits of air pollution mitigation strategies in both the energy and transportation sectors. His research aims to focus on how these impacts can be incorporated to improve health and assist in future policy decisions.

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Zanyah Williams

Pronouns: she/her

Advisor: Kevin Lane, PhD, MA

Zanyah is interested in using interdisciplinary methods to understand how systems of oppression drive environmental vulnerability. She aims to integrate community-centered research with spatial and social epidemiology methods to address systemic environmental health disparities.

Kirsten Miller

Pronouns: she/her
Advisor: Kipruto Kirwa, PhD

Kirsten is interested in how environmental exposures during pregnancy impact maternal and child health outcomes. She is also interested in developing methods to improve the assessment of air pollution exposures in environmental epidemiology.

Erin Plummer

Advisor: Kat Moon, PhD

Erin is interested in the relationship between exposure to environmental contaminants and chronic health and developmental outcomes in urban settings. She aims to examine long-term exposure to ambient air pollution and water contamination and the associated spatial and sociodemographic patterns of health.

Caroline Sarpy

Advisor: Maria Argos, PhD

Caroline's research interests involve how extreme heat, air pollution, and the built environment impact health. She aims to use mixtures methodologies in combination with machine learning to examine the associations of joint exposure effects.

Elle Thompson

Advisor: Greg Wellenius, ScD

Elle's research interests center on the human health impacts of extreme weather, particularly in the context of air pollution and extreme heat in urban areas. She aims to integrate geospatial analysis and epidemiologic methods to understand where and how multiple extreme weather based stressors influence health, with the goal of informing energy policy and building community climate resiliency.

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.

The BUSPH Career Office is available for students interested in learning more about career paths, networking, and navigating the job search process.

Below is a summary of some of the institutions and organizations where graduates of our program have obtained positions.

Post-Doctoral Research Fellowships

Boston University School of Public Health, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Brown University School of Public Health, Dartmouth Center for Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research, Michigan University School of Public Health, University of Washington School of Public Health, Duke University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Léa-Roback Research Centre on Health Inequalities, Michigan Public Health Institute, Slone Epidemiology Center at Boston University, Yale University Climate & Energy Institute, Channing Laboratory at Brigham & Women’s Hospital
Students & alumni can access the Fellowships section of the SPH Career Library

Positions in Academia

Boston University School of Public Health, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Northeastern University, University of California – Irvine, Dickinson College, East Tennessee State University, University of Southern Maine, Clark University, Brandeis University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Vermont, University of New England, Middlebury College, Huntsman Cancer Institute

Students & alumni can access the Academic Careers section of the SPH Career Library

Government Agencies

Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Minnesota Department of Public Health, California Department of Public Health, United States Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, US Environmental Protection Agency, Oregon Health Authority

Students & alumni can access the Government Careers section of the SPH Career Library

Consulting Firms/Industry

Environmental Health & Engineering, Abt Associates, Global Health Solutions, The Lifeline Group, Industrial Economics, EPRI

Students & alumni can access of the Consulting Careers section of the SPH Career Library

The BUSPH PhD in Environmental Health is distinctive because it is rooted in both rigorous doctoral training and real-world public health impact with an emphasis on policy and community settings. Students are trained to become independent researchers who can identify, evaluate, and address environmental exposures and health risks affecting populations, and translate research into policy and interventions.

Key strengths of the program include training in environmental epidemiology in community settings and the opportunity for interdisciplinary training through the BU Graduate Program in Urban Biogeoscience and Environmental Health. Students work with faculty whose research spans areas such as environmental and occupational epidemiology, spatial epidemiology, exposure science, health and extreme weather, health impact assessment, and toxicology and chemical risk assessment.

The program emphasizes close faculty mentorship, interdisciplinary research, and the development of strong methodological skills. Students engage in research early in their training through research rotations and are expected to develop expertise that leads to an original dissertation contribution in environmental health.

You do not need to have a confirmed mentor before applying, but applicants should identify faculty whose research interests align with their own. The program expects applicants to show an understanding of the department’s research areas and explain why BUSPH EH is a strong fit for their doctoral training goals. Formal advising and mentoring arrangements are finalized after the admissions process.

No. Students do not necessarily need an MPH or a master’s degree to apply to the PhD program. Applicants may come from a range of backgrounds, both within and outside public health, such as environmental science, epidemiology, biology, toxicology, statistics, environmental engineering, urban planning, social sciences, or other related fields.

However, students are expected to have sufficient preparation for doctoral-level study in environmental health. Those without prior public health or environmental health training may need to complete foundational coursework or develop competencies in areas such as epidemiology, biostatistics, environmental health, exposure science, or research methods.

The key issue is not whether an applicant holds a specific master’s degree, but whether they have the academic preparation, research experience, and motivation needed to succeed in doctoral training.

Because eligibility for US-based federal training grants or fellowships may be limited by citizenship or residency status, international students rely on other non-federal funding sources or faculty grant support.

Recommendation letters should come from individuals who can speak directly and in detail about the applicant’s ability to succeed in a research-intensive doctoral program.

Strong recommenders often include:

• Faculty members who taught or advised the applicant
• Research supervisors or principal investigators
• Thesis or capstone advisors
• Professional supervisors in relevant public health, environmental health, laboratory, policy, or research settings

The most useful letters are from people who can comment on the applicant’s research skills, analytical ability, writing ability, independence, intellectual curiosity, perseverance, collaboration, and readiness for PhD-level work. A detailed letter from someone who knows the applicant well is generally more valuable than a generic letter from someone with a more prominent title.

Yes, all BUSPH PhD students complete two teaching courses. PH895 Public Health Pedagogy and Curriculum Development (2 cr) includes training in effective teaching practices, techniques to create inclusive classrooms, strategies to facilitate productive discussions, a review of resources across the university relevant to teaching, training in effective communication, and strategies to self-assess and reflect on teaching. After successfully completing PH895, all PhD students complete PH896 Mentored Teaching Practicum for Doctoral Students (2 cr) where they work closely with a faculty mentor to apply and hone their teaching skills and to reflect on their practices as a cohort in a weekly seminar.

Your statement of purpose should clearly detail your area of research interest, why you want to pursue a PhD in Environmental Health at BUSPH, and how your background has prepared you for doctoral research.

A strong statement should address:

• Your research interests in environmental health
• The public health problems or environmental exposures you want to study and help to addres
• Relevant academic, research, professional, or lived experiences
• Your methodological interests, such as environmental and occupational epidemiology, spatial epidemiology, exposure science, health and extreme weather, health impact assessment, and toxicology and chemical risk assessment
• Why BUSPH is a strong fit for your goals
• Specific faculty members, research groups, centers, or projects that align with your interests
• Your long-term career goals
• Evidence that you understand what doctoral training involves

The statement should be focused, specific, and research-oriented. Rather than simply describing a general interest in public health, it should show that you are prepared to pursue independent research and that there is a strong match between your goals and the Environmental Health doctoral program at BUSPH.