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.
When Prisma Health decided to expand their Midlands Healthy Start program, they turned to maternal and child health expert and epidemiology professor Jihong Liu, who has already led evaluations into the program's effectiveness.
Pieter Baker is approaching the intersection of drugs, germs and justice from every angle - looking at bacteria/viruses and injectable drugs to immigration policies and the criminal justice system.
Just one semester into her first faculty appointment, Nandita Perumal is already stepping up as a thought leader in gestational weight gain - particularly in a global context. The epidemiology assistant professor has published a key paper and joined a new taskforce.
The USC Office of the Vice President for Research has announced the website launches for five new research institutes, including the Institute for Infectious Disease Translational Research led by epidemiology associate professor Melissa Nolan.
The Arnold School is pleased to announce the 2023 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Awards, which are designed to recognize alumni, faculty, staff and students who have made exceptional contributions to advancing DEI.
Her research aims to improve maternal, newborn, and child nutrition, health and development in vulnerable populations by understanding the causes of adverse maternal and child health outcomes as well as the long-term consequences of adverse exposures in early life.