Public Health Sciences, PhD
The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree with a major in Public Health Sciences prepares students to think critically as scientists and to develop and communicate public health strategies to address public health challenges.
Program overview
The Doctor of Philosophy in Public Health Sciences at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, prepares students to think critically as researchers and develop evidence-based strategies addressing public health challenges nationwide. Offered exclusively on the Knoxville campus, the program is housed within the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences.
The program requires 72 graduate credit hours, including foundation courses, core doctoral coursework, a 9-credit cognate area, electives, and a 24-credit dissertation. Core courses cover advanced biostatistics, epidemiology, dissemination and implementation science, and health behavior theory. Students must pass both a qualifying exam and a comprehensive exam and complete a dissertation defense.
Why study Public Health Sciences?
Public Health Sciences offers the rare opportunity to improve lives at scale. While clinical medicine treats individuals, public health prevents disease and promotes well-being across entire populations, through policy, research, and community action.
The field is interdisciplinary, blending biology, data science, sociology, economics, and ethics. This makes it ideal for people who think across boundaries and care about root causes, such as poverty, environment, and inequality.
Career options are broad: epidemiology, health policy, global health, biostatistics, community health, and more, across government, nonprofits, academia, and the private sector.
What can you do with a PhD in Public Health Sciences after graduation?
Government & Public Agencies
Lead research or policy divisions at agencies like the CDC, NIH, FDA, or state health departments. PhD-level expertise is often required for senior scientific roles.
International & Global Health Organizations
Work with the WHO, UNICEF, World Bank, or large NGOs designing and evaluating health programs across low- and middle-income countries.
Nonprofit Leadership
Lead program evaluation, strategy, or research at health-focused foundations and advocacy organizations.
Academia
Become a professor or research scientist at a university, teaching, securing grants, and publishing original research on disease, health behavior, policy, or health equity.
Featured Courses
Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses are important components of the epidemiologist’s toolbox. They often provide the foundations for understanding the state of current research on a given exposure-outcome relationship, and may offer opportunities for future research topics.
Biostatistics III
Topics addressed include measures of disease, measures of effect, sources of error, advanced methodological issues unique to the observational and experimental study designs utilized in public health practice and research, causal inference, and screening and clinical epidemiology.
Dissemination and Implementation Science
Design a system-level intervention, emphasizing best pedagogical practices in delivering an educational experience in a community setting.
Comparative Theories in Health Behavior
Theoretical models of health behavior; analysis, synthesis, and discussion of historical, contemporary and cross-cultural relevance of models; application of theory to research, prevention and intervention in public health; critical reading and evaluation of theory-based research on health behavior.
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