Environmental Health Sciences track

Cross-disciplinary with the Office of Public Health Studies

The Environmental Health Sciences track enables students in the Global Environmental Science Program to concentrate their academic studies in areas of significant importance in the relationship between environmental issues and public health. The inter-relationship between the environment and its impact on human health is vast and constantly changing. Issues such as food security, emerging zoonotic diseases, water scarcity, air and water pollution, over population, waste disposal, pesticide use, depletion of resources on land and in the sea are just a few of the pressing environmental issues that affect the health and well-being of millions of people worldwide. In this track, students will gain the basic scientific knowledge necessary to understand the underlying science of the environment while simultaneously being exposed to public health principles that are essential for establishing cause and effect relationships between environmental conditions and human health, as well as understanding the compromises that sometimes must be made to accommodate economic, health and environmental preservation goals. Graduates of this track will be uniquely positioned for careers in the environmental health field ranging from laboratory workers to regulatory policy and enforcement officers with environmental agencies.

This track requires the following four Coupled Systems courses; each course is three credits.

  • PH 201 Introduction to Public Health
  • PH 310 Introduction to Epidemiology
  • PH 340 Public Health and the Environment
  • PH 341 Public Health Biology and Pathophysiology

Advising:

Students interested in the Environmental Health Sciences track should seek advising from GES and/or the Track Coordinator, Dr. Alan Katz (OPHS faculty).