Environmental Health Sciences, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
The PhD program in Environmental Health Sciences consists of a minimum of 31 credit hours of graduate course work, 18 credits of specialization/elective courses including a lab rotation requirement, and 12 credits of dissertation research for a total of 61 credits. Graduate courses include (1) core courses within environmental health, epidemiology and biostatistics; (2) supporting courses in environmental health research, ethics, public health, and grant writing; (3) specialized courses selected within the research foci; and (4) dissertation credits. The program can be completed on either a full- or part time basis. It is anticipated that students will complete more than the minimum number of credits.
Advance to Candidacy: Students must successfully complete a written and oral comprehensive exam in order to advance to candidacy.
Post-Candidacy: Students must pass an oral defense of a written dissertation research proposal, complete a minimum of 12 credits of MIEH899 doctoral dissertation research, as well as submit and defend an original dissertation.
Some core coursework may be waived based on previous courses taken at UMD or in another master's program. Students would not be able to waive out of all rotations or the seminar requirements. Rotations can be in physical labs or with faculty conducting non-laboratory based research. At least 1 rotation must be outside of the students focus area. Students would not be able to waive out of any of the 12 to 15 credits required for the specialization area. No more than 6 credits of MIEH 898 could be taken as part of the specialization area.
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| MIEH600 | Foundations of Environmental Health | 3 |
| MIEH700 | Advanced Environmental Health | 3 |
| MIEH720 | Principles of Toxicology | 3 |
| MIEH740 | Environmental Health Risk Assessment | 3 |
| MIEH771 | Exposure Assessment of Environmental Hazards | 3 |
| EPIB610 | Foundations of Epidemiology | 3 |
| EPIB650 | Biostatistics I | 3 |
| EPIB651 | Applied Regression Analysis | 3 |
| SPHL611 | Public Health Ethics | 1 |
| or SPHL612 | Research Ethics | |
| MIEH783 | Proposal Development and Marketing for Public Health Scientists | 3 |
| MIEH899 | Doctoral Dissertation Research | 12 |
| SPHL600 | Foundations of Public Health | 3 |
| Lab Rotations and Specialization/Elective Courses (choose one of two options): 1 | 18 | |
Option 1: | ||
| Methods in Environmental Health (1 Lab Rotation; 3 Credits) | ||
Specialization/Elective Courses (15 Credits) | ||
Option 2: | ||
| Methods in Environmental Health (2 Lab Rotations of 3 credits each; total 6 Credits) | ||
Specialization/Elective Courses (12 Credits) | ||
| Total Credits | 61 | |
- 1
- The specialization area would be created by and tailored to each student's specific research focus. If the student takes 2 lab rotations (MIEH609), they would take 12 credits of specialization/elective courses. If they take 1 lab rotation (MIEH609), they would take 15 credits of specialization/elective courses.