PhD in Epidemiology

PhD in 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 IUPUI 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 IUPUI academic health sciences campus. There is no other location in Indiana that offers such a diverse and rich environment for epidemiologic research.

Please explore the information on our website to learn more about what makes the IU Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health the ideal place to pursue your doctoral degree. Have questions? Contact us. We’re here to help.

Yiqing Song, MD, ScD
Professor and PhD Program Director

Faculty

The Epidemiology department is comprised of a renowned, award-winning and connected international faculty. Professor and department Chair Jiali Han, PhD, has been the key investigator on multiple NIH-funded projects and has played a leading role in large national and international collaborative consortia on melanoma, non-melanoma skin cancer, and human pigmentation. Associate Professor Yiqing Song, MD, ScD, is studying primary prevention and epidemiology of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease and has led many epidemiology studies in large-scale prospective cohorts such as the Women’s Health Study (WHS), the Women’s Antioxidant Cardiovascular Study (WACS), the Physicians’ Health Study (PHS), and the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study (WHI-OS). Associate Professor Chunyan He, ScD, is researching cancer epidemiology, as well as, molecular and genetic epidemiology, with a special interest in genetic susceptibility of breast cancer and skin cancer.

Epidemiology Doctoral Program Director: Yiqing Song, MD, ScD

Epidemiology Faculty

Curriculum

All PhD candidates must satisfactorily complete a minimum of 90 credits that includes required Epidemiology Core courses, Methods courses, Elective courses, a Doctoral Minor, Doctoral Research Seminars, and guided dissertation research. To see the curriculum, click the button below.

Competencies

The PhD in Epidemiology focuses on 10 core competencies that serve as a measure of growth and criteria for assessment. 

Epidemiology Competencies

Admissions

Students start the PhD program in the Fall semester. The application deadline is December 15. It is strongly recommended that all transcripts be submitted no later than November 15 to allow sufficient time for the required transcript verification process.

For detailed admissions criteria and instructions for applying to the PhD in Epidemiology degree, click a button below.

PhD in Epidemiology Admission Criteria

Frequently Asked Questions

For a list of Frequently Asked Questions (and answers) about the PhD in Epidemiology program, click the button.

Epidemiology Program Frequently Asked Questions