Degree Programs
Doctor of Philosophy - Epidemiology
The PhD in Epidemiology program at the IU Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health is designed for advanced graduate students who want to study the distribution of health and illness in diverse populations, the occurrence of illness, and how to assess the determinants of health and disease risk in human populations.
Our students are trained to become scientific leaders in academic, governmental agency, non-governmental agency, and industry settings. Graduates are trained to develop and conduct epidemiologic research and to translate their findings to a diverse audience, including the biomedical research community, public health practitioners, health policy makers, and clinicians in the health professions, as well as to the general public.
The 90-credit hour Epidemiology PhD program can be completed on a part-time or full-time basis. Scholarships, traineeships, and pre-doctoral fellowships are available to full-time students of outstanding merit. Our PhD program promotes educational and scientific development through research collaborations, public health partnerships, and a commitment to diversity.
PhD students will work one-on-one with individual faculty members and may pursue topics of interest, capitalizing on faculty members’ research expertise and on-going projects. Key areas of research available to epidemiology doctoral students on the IU Indianapolis campus include:
- Cancer Epidemiology and Cancer Prevention
- Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology
- Clinical Epidemiology
- Metabolic Disease Epidemiology
- Infectious Disease Epidemiology
- Injury Epidemiology
- Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology
- Nutritional Epidemiology
- Pharmacoepidemiology
- Public Health Informatics
Extensive research opportunities are available to our doctoral students across the IU Indianapolis academic health sciences campus. There is no other location in Indiana that offers such a diverse and rich environment for epidemiologic research.
PhD in Epidemiology curriculum
To complete this degree, you will take a combination of required epidemiology core courses, methods courses, elective courses, a doctoral minor, doctoral research seminars, and guided dissertation research that together total 90 credits.
If applicants to the epidemiology PhD program have recently completed an MPH program in epidemiology or a related area and therefore already have solid academic preparation in epidemiology and biostatistics, they may not need to take select foundation courses, which would reduce their required curriculum credits. Individuals accepted into the program who do not have the foundation courses in epidemiology and biostatistics will be required to take the full 90-credit curriculum:
Required Core Courses
Take all nine courses for a total of 27 credits
- PBHL-B 552 Fundamentals of Data Management (using SAS) (3 credits)
- PBHL-B 571 Biostatistics Method I: Linear Model in Public Health (4 credits)
- PBHL-B 572 Biostatistics Method II: Categorical Data Analysis (4 credits)
- PBHL-B 582 Introduction to Clinical Trials (3 credits)
- PBHL-E 517 Fundamentals of Epidemiology (3 credits)
- PBHL-E 601 Advanced Epidemiology (3 credits)
- PBHL-E 606 Grant Writing for Public Health (3 credits)
- PBHL-E 635 Foundations of Public Health Informatics (3 credits)
- PBHL-E 715 Design and Implementation of Observational Studies (3 credits)
Methods courses
Choose five courses for a total of 15 credits.
- PBHL-B 573 Biostatistics Method III: Applied Survival Data Analysis (4 credits)
- PBHL-B 574 Biostatistics Method IV: Applied Longitudinal Data Analysis (3 credits)
- PBHL-B 583 Applied Multivariate Analysis in Public Health (3 credits)
- PBHL-E 645 Information Exchange for Population Health (1 credit)
- MGEN-G 788 (INFO-I 590) Intro to the Next Generation Sequencing Technology (3 credits)
- INFO-B 636 Next Generation Geonomic Data Analysis (3 credits)
*Students may take methods and substantive electives offered by other IU Indianapolis departments with advisor approval.
Elective courses
Choose four courses for a total of 12 credits.
- PBHL-E 647 Introduction to Population Health Analytics (3 credits)
- PBHL-E 609 Infectious Disease Epidemiology
- PBHL-E 666 Overview of Precision Health (3 credits)
- PBHL-E 618 Global Cancer Epidemiology (3 credits)
- PBHL-E 675 Fundamentals of Injury Epidemiology
- PBHL-E 765 Nutritional Epidemiology (3 credits)
- PBHL-E 750 Doctoral Topics in Epidemiology variable 1-3
- PBHL-E 751 Doctoral Readings in Epidemiology variable 1-3
- PBHL-E 752 Doctoral Level Directed Research (3 credits)
- PBHL-B 586 Technical Reporting and Scientific Writing (1 credit)
*Students may take methods and substantive electives offered by other IU Indianapolis departments with advisor approval.
Minor area
Students must complete a PhD minor in an area related to a health and life science. The minor in most cases is comprised of four graduate level courses (12 credit hours) in the chosen area and must comply with the minor requirements of the respective department/unit.
Doctoral research seminars
Students will enroll in three doctoral research seminars. Each seminar is one credit, for a total of three credits. (PBHL-E 775)
Dissertation
- PBHL-E 799 Dissertation Proposal (4 credits)
- PBHL-E 800 Epidemiology Doctoral Dissertation Research (17 credits)
Other degree requirements for the PhD in Epidemiology
Public Health coursework
Epidemiology students without a graduate degree, certificate, or coursework in public health will be required to complete online introductory modules on Environmental Health, Health Policy and Management, and Social and Behavioral Science to ensure that they have basic competencies in all five core public health areas. This is a requirement of the Council on Education in Public Health (CEPH), the school’s accrediting body.
PhD advisory committee
The department of epidemiology will set up an advisory committee for the student, typically in the first year after admission to the PhD program. The advisory committee usually includes at least two epidemiologists and one or two faculty members from another discipline. The advisory committee will approve the student’s program of study and counsel the student until he or she passes the qualifying examination. Each PhD student will also be assigned to an academic advisor from one of the full-time faculty members in the department of epidemiology.
Minor area
The student will select a minor from an academic unit other than the department of epidemiology. The PhD minor must be approved by the student’s advisory committee, and comply with requirements of the respective minor department or program. Examples of minors include: biostatistics, genetics, pharmacology, toxicology, health economics, environmental health, and health informatics.
Qualifying examinations
The qualifying examination will be based upon the student’s PhD coursework and will be taken after all courses have been completed. Students who fail the qualifying examination are normally allowed to retake it only once. The qualifying exam will be a written exam.
Students who have passed the qualifying examination must enroll each semester (excluding summer sessions) for dissertation credits. Once such students have accumulated 90 credit hours in completed coursework and dissertation credits, they must enroll for six hours of graduate credit (GRAD-G901) each semester until the degree is completed. The fee for this course is $150. Students are permitted to enroll in G901 for a maximum of six semesters.
The Department of Epidemiology will monitor the student’s progress toward the PhD degree and will make recommendations to the University Graduate School Indianapolis regarding the nomination to candidacy, the appointment of a research committee, the defense of the dissertation, and the conferring of the PhD degree.
Dissertation
The dissertation will be written on an original topic of research and presented as one of the final requirements for the PhD degree. The student’s dissertation research committee will be comprised of members of the graduate faculty. The chair of the dissertation research committee must be a regular faculty member in the department of Epidemiology and a full member of the Graduate Faculty.
The student will submit to the IU Indianapolis Graduate Office, acting for the University Graduate School Indianapolis, a two-page prospectus of the dissertation research and the membership of the research committee at least six months before the defense of the dissertation for their approval.
After the committee has reviewed the dissertation, the decision to schedule the defense will be made. The student will then present and defend the dissertation orally in a public forum before the committee. Following the dissertation defense, all deficiencies must be adequately addressed to obtain approval by the dissertation research committee.
Competencies
The PhD in Epidemiology focuses on five core competencies that serve as a measure of growth and criteria for assessment.
- Design investigations of acute and chronic conditions, as well as other adverse health outcomes in targeted populations characterized by age, sex, race, ethnicity, culture, societal, educational, and other demographic backgrounds.
- Manage and analyze data from epidemiologic investigations and surveillance systems.
- Use current knowledge of causes of disease to guide epidemiologic perspectives.
- Prepare written reports and presentations to effectively communicate epidemiological evidence to professional audiences.
- Prepare proposals for peer-reviewed funding.
Admissions
Admission into the Epidemiology PhD program is based on completion of a baccalaureate degree, although it is anticipated that many applicants will have completed a post baccalaureate degree in public health or other health related discipline.
Fall semester application deadline: December 15
All required application documents must be submitted by the Epidemiology PhD program deadline, with the exception of recommendation letters, which may be submitted up to two weeks past the deadline.
Admission requirements
- Personal Statement
- Résumé
- Transcripts
- Recommendations
- Sample of Scholarly Writing
- Proof of English Proficiency (applicants whose native language is not English)
- Graduate Record Examination (GRE)
Graduate Record Examination (GRE)
GRE or other graduate entrance exam scores are required for all applicants. In addition to the GRE, the Epidemiology PhD program also accepts scores from the MCAT, LSAT, GMAT, DAT. However, testing services other than the ETS (GRE) may not submit scores directly to the SOPHAS system. If your testing service does not submit scores to SOPHAS, you can have them sent directly to IU Indianapolis.
International applicants
Applicants who have attended post-secondary institutions outside of the U.S. are also required to submit the following supporting documentation to SOPHAS with their application:
World Education Services (WES) ICAP evaluation of foreign academic credentials
The Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health requires all applicants with foreign academic credentials to provide a World Education Services (WES) ICAP course-by-course evaluation of those credentials. Applicants should submit their transcripts to WES at least one month in advance of the application deadline to ensure that the evaluation is completed in time.
Please note: U.S. applicants who studied at foreign institutions as part of a study abroad experience at their U.S. college or university do not need to provide a WES evaluation of their study abroad coursework.
Updated: April 2024
