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Ph.D. in Public Health with a Concentration in Environmental Toxicology

The Department of Environmental Health Sciences (EHS) offers doctoral degrees in two different tracks: 1) Environmental Toxicology and 2) Brain, Behavior, Environment. 

The doctoral program takes advantage of faculty expertise in environmental exposures, neuroscience, cancer, occupational health, toxicology, and drug discovery to provide students with a broad knowledge that will make them competitive for private, public, and government positions in bench science, policy development, and community education.

The department, through its academic programs and cutting-edge research applies the next generation of biomedical advances by leveraging emerging knowledge in human disease biology and environmental health impacts resulting from anthropogenic activities, climate change and pollution to better inform local, national, and global health policy, address environmental justice, forge potent strategies to combat disease and counter toxic exposures, and to enhance community understanding of environmental health risks to extend the health spans and well being of individuals. 

Environmental Toxicology Track

The Doctoral program in Environmental Toxicology track emphasizes themes in cancer, occupational health, toxicology, alongside environmental exposures to prepare students for medical, industrial, research, and government careers. The program provides students with the interdisciplinary perspective of integrating environmental influences into understanding and combating complex non-communicable diseases and metabolic disorders in different population. The program extensively applies bioinformatics, biostatistics, machine learning (ML) and cutting-edge laboratory methods to advance environmental health risk assessment and functional precision medicine fields.

Students will be expected to demonstrate significant research capacity by completing 60 credits beyond the Master’s degree and through the writing of an original dissertation.

Stempel College Rankings

  • Top 50School of Public Health among public universities (U.S. News & World Report)
  • No. 12public school of public health in the country with NIH funding.​ (Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research)
Prospective Students
  • Doctoral Admissions

    Applicants must meet the University's general graduate admission requirements:

    1. A four-year bachelor's degree or equivalent from a nationally accredited institution or, in the case of foreign students, from a well-established institution of higher learning that is authorized to grant degrees by appropriate authorities in that country.

    2. A minimum of a 3.0 GPA, “B” average, in the last 60 upper-division undergraduate coursework, or a graduate degree from a nationally accredited institution. 3. International graduate student applicants whose native language is not English are required to submit a score for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or for the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). A total score of 80 on the iBT TOEFL or a 6.5 overall on the IELTS is required or other University approved tests of English.

    The College also requires:

    1. A current resumé.
    2. Three letters of recommendation.
    3. 3. A writing sample (Master's thesis or research project, published manuscript, or some other document which demonstrates writing ability).
    4. 4. A personal statement of research interest. Potential applicants are strongly encouraged to contact individual faculty to discuss common research interests since admission decisions require identification of a faculty mentor, and evaluation of fit to the program
  • Doctoral Requirements

    A student may enroll for dissertation credits after completing all coursework, passing the candidacy examination, and being advanced to candidacy. Dissertation credits cannot be taken before advancement to candidacy.

    The candidacy examination will be prepared and graded by a committee consisting of a minimum of three faculty members. Admission to candidacy requires that a majority of the committee members agree that the student passed the examination. A candidacy examination may not be passed conditionally. A “Pass” on the examination cannot be made contingent upon other factors such as the completion of additional coursework or the preparation of extra research projects. Students will be allowed only two attempts to pass the candidacy examination.

    After a doctoral student is admitted to candidacy, continuous registration for at least 3 dissertation credit hours each semester (including the summer term) is required until the dissertation requirement is fulfilled.

  • Course Catalog
    View the Course Catalog.
  • EHS PhD Handbook
    View the EHS PHD Handbook.

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