The Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental and Occupational Health

The PhD in environmental and occupational health requires mastering twelve competencies beyond those required for the MPH including development of quantitative and qualitative models to predict exposure, risk, or management of hazardous agents. All students learn to master laboratory techniques, understand the etiology of occupational and environmental disease, conduct exposure assessment, analyze policy, and design and build control techniques for biological, chemical, or physical hazards. Students are mentored by faculty appropriate to their interests in either policy, global-environmental health, exposure assessment, aerosols or chemistry, biological hazards, or geographic information systems. A thesis is developed by the student in consultation with the student’s mentor and this work helps to prepare the student to become an independent investigator working in academia, government, business, consulting, or in non-governmental agencies.

Total credit hours: 72

Master of Public Health in Environmental and Occupational Health

Students will master competencies in the following broad areas: health and ecological effects of environmental agents; factors that modify exposures to these agents including genetic and behavioral; assessment and control of environmental risks to people; policies, programs, and regulations that concern environmental health issues, and program administration and management. The curriculum is designed to prepare students to address hazards as they occur around the world with learning outside the classroom in the laboratory, community, workplace, and developing countries.

Graduates find jobs as project managers in environmental consulting firms, supervisory positions in industrial hygiene for corporations, policy or research specialists in government agencies such as the EPA, NIOSH, CDC, or pursue further study in research or practice in clinical settings.

Total credit hours: 48

Master of Public Health in Environmental Health and Epidemiology

Students will master many of the same competencies as those in the traditional “EOH” curriculum, however, competencies emphasizing tools necessary to evaluate the impact of environmental agents on the distribution of disease in workplaces and communities both locally and around the world are emphasized. Students will have the opportunity to enrich their learning with collection or analysis of data that is immediately relevant to communities around St. Louis or in developing countries that are a focus of faculty research and service.

Graduates will be able to carry out surveillance activities and other epidemiological assessments for employers in hospital settings, health departments, private corporations, non-governmental agencies, and federal government agencies both in the U.S. and around the world.

Total credit hours: 54