Requirements and Curriculum

The PhD requires 72 credit hours of classroom coursework, directed research and dissertation credits.

The UB Graduate School requires a minimum overall GPA of 3.0 and a minimum grade of B in all coursework to count towards your degree.

Through the dissertation, you will design, implement, complete and report on significant and original, independent epidemiologic research. You will conduct your research under the supervision of your major professor and a dissertation committee.

Your research culminates in a dissertation defense. You will present and formally defend your thesis to your major professor, your dissertation committee and the MS/PhD graduate director.

View the Epidemiology and Environmental Health Graduate Student Handbook for more information about program requirements.

All courses are 3 credit hours unless otherwise indicated.

* This course is designed for advanced doctoral students.

Principles and Methods of Epidemiology Core Courses

• EEH 501 Principles of Epidemiology (4 credits)
  Must be completed in the first semester.
• EEH 502 Advanced Methodology
• EEH 601 Advanced Epidemiologic Study Designs *
  

Statistical Methods Core Courses

• EEH 505 Application of Biostatistics to Epidemiology I (1 credit)
  Must be completed in the first semester.
• EEH 506 Application of Biostatistics to Epidemiology II (4 credits)
• EEH 611 Analysis of Health Data * (4 credits)
• STA 527 (LEC) Introduction to Medical Statistics (3 credits)
  Must be completed in the first semester.
  Strongly recommended to attend STA 527 recitation.
  
• One advanced statistics course outside of the department in consultation with the director of graduate studies. Options are:
  
  • CHB 620 Special Topics, Applied Longitudinal
  • NUS 695 Advanced Statistical Techniques
  • STA 503 Regression Analysis
  • STA 517 Categorical Data Analysis
  • STA 545 Statistical Data Mining I
  • STA 546 Statistical Data Mining II
  • STA 575 Survival Analysis

• CHB 550 Public Health and Population Wellbeing

PhD Dissertation Guidance

• EEH 700 Dissertation Guidance * (a minimum of 1 credit required)

Credit hours total 29 for required core courses.

Epidemiology Electives Courses
Choose four of the following courses:

• EEH 570 Cancer Epidemiology
• EEH 571 Epidemiology of Cardiovascular Disease
• EEH 572 Nutritional Epidemiology
• EEH 573 Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases
• EEH 574 Epidemics and Outbreaks
• EEH 575 Epidemiologic Applications to Environmental Health
• EEH 577 Perinatal Epidemiology
• EEH 610 Fundamentals of Grant Development *
  
• EEH 670 Advanced Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention *
• EEH 672 The Role of Physical Activity in the Etiology, Treatment and Prevention of Chronic Disease *
• EEH 673 Molecular Epidemiology *
• EEH 674 Fundamentals of Genetic Epidemiology *
  

Credit hours total 12 for required epidemiology elective courses.

Graduate Seminar

• EEH 591 Graduate Seminar (0 credits) - All PhD students are required to present at a Graduate Seminar before scheduling their dissertation defense.

Ethics Course/Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Training
All doctoral students must obtain formal training in the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR). All PhD students are required to take and pass the following online course:

• Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) online course with a score of 80% or higher (0 credits)

Students may also take one of the following courses in addition to CITI:

• RPN 541 Ethics and Conduct of Research (1 credit)
• SSC 640 Graduate Research Ethics (3 credits)

The remaining courses will be tailored to your interests and needs, and planned in consultation with your faculty advisor.

These may include:

• EEH 510 Principles of Measurement in Public Health
  Strongly recommended
• EEH 697 Independent Study PhD * (1-9 credits)
  
• EEH 698 Directed Research * (1-15 credits)
• EEH 700 Dissertation Guidance * (1-12 credits)
• STA 527 (REC) Introduction to Medical Statistics (1 credit, recitation)
  

* This course is designed for advanced doctoral students.

Balance of 28 to 31 credit hours (depending on credits taken for the ethics course) needed for a minimum of 72 total credit hours for the PhD degree.

Courses taken outside of the following departments must first be approved by the MS/PhD graduate director: Epidemiology and Environmental Health; Biostatistics; Community Health and Health Behavior; Roswell Park's Natural Sciences or Roswell Park's Cancer Prevention and Control.

View the full curriculum of this multidisciplinary cancer training within the PhD program.