Welcome to the Division of Epidemiology in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of South Carolina.
What happens to children with diabetes when there isn’t enough food in the household? How can older individuals prevent falls? How can mothers reduce their risk of diabetes in pregnancy? These are some questions that our faculty are seeking to answer.
Epidemiologists design and conduct investigations aimed at improving the health of groups of people by combining knowledge from the social sciences, medicine, biology, the environment, and statistics. Epidemiologic studies provide evidence to inform recommendations for disease prevention, determine optimal treatments, and evaluate the effect of policies. The field is poised to rapidly grow in the future by harnessing developments in genetics, the microbiome, big data, and artificial intelligence to improve health. If you like biology, statistics, and computing, and want to make a difference to the health of large groups of people, epidemiology may be for you.
The Department of Epidemiology has 18 full-time faculty who are passionate about teaching and engaging with students. Students receive rigorous training to design and analyze epidemiologic studies and interpret and report their findings to scientific and public health communities through didactic and practical training. In addition to epidemiologic methods, the curriculum covers applied statistics, data management, and elective courses focused on substantive areas of epidemiology such as nutrition, cardiovascular disease, cancer, clinical trials, maternal and child health, infectious disease, environmental health, and social determinants of health.
Epidemiology is in high demand. Our graduates have taken up positions at top tier universities, the CDC, and the World Health Organization, academia, research, state and federal health departments, hospital systems, pharmaceutical industry, insurance companies, and non-profit organizations.
We offer eight advanced degrees in epidemiology and biostatistics. Each graduate degree has specific application deadlines and requirements.
Nansi Boghossian and Melissa Nolan, both associate professors in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, have been awarded more than $600K each from The Duke Endowment to lead projects that improve access to health care for underserved populations.
USC features the work of epidemiology professor Angela Liese, whose two decades of research into diabetes among youth and young adults has revealed food insecurity as one of the biggest challenges this group faces.
New research led by Nansi Boghossian has investigated the relationship between sickle cell disease and severe maternal morbidity (i.e., adverse outcomes such as heart failure, blood transfusions, and hysterectomy after delivery).
USC features epidemiology associate professor Melissa Nolan, whose search for innovative ways to curb the impact of viral and insect-borne illness has earned her a Breakthrough Star Award.
The Arnold School is proud to announce the recipients of the 2023 Faculty Awards: James A. Keith Excellence in Teaching Award (Courtney Monroe), Faculty Research Award (Jihong Liu), and Faculty Service Award (Alicia Flach).
After graduating in May with an MPH in Epidemiology, Humna Fayyaz will continue her training in these areas with a fellowship in addiction medicine at the University of Illinois-Chicago Hospital.