PhD student recruitment – update summer 2024
The Zilber College of Public Health will not be admitting new PhD trainees in Environmental Health Sciences until the fall of 2026. (Our incoming cohort for 2024 is confirmed, and we will not be admitting new PhD students to begin in the fall of 2025. At this time we only admit PhD students every 2 years to establish robust cohorts that support each other).
At this time I do not know whether I will be recruiting PhD students to train under my direction for the fall of 2026, nor do I know if I will have funding.
If you are interested in my mentorship, I recommend:
Contact me in the early fall of 2025, when I will know more about my availability and funding.
If I do admit new PhD students, I will be looking for:
-Students with a prior master’s degree in a relevant field, such as an MPH or an MS in environmental health sciences or epidemiology
-Students interested in air pollution, green space, climate change, or metal exposures, during early life.
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For information on the PhD in Environmental Health Sciences (EHS): visit the UWM Graduate School page on this degree.
I love mentoring students toward a PhD. I offer training exclusively in environmental epidemiology, that is, researching the impact of environmental exposures on health in human populations. Environmental exposures include traditional chemical pollutants (e.g. air pollutants, metals, pesticides) together with more newly-studied aspects of the broader environment, such as green space and noise. Furthermore, the specific research you pursue must be close enough to my area of expertise that I may best support you. I define this as a research question where either the exposure (or independent or X variable) OR the outcome (health endpoint, dependent or Y variable) is something that I have previously studied. At this point I have studied air pollutants and tobacco exposures, together with birth outcomes and neurodevelopment. So, for example, I could assist you in studying air pollutants and cancer, or pesticides and attention disorders, but not pesticides and cancer. Together we’ll consider other aspects before finalizing your project, especially whether we have access to quality data needed to draw robust conclusions.
You will be required to form your own research question for your dissertation project (rather than selecting from questions that I am already pursuing). I will provide you a lot of stepping stones toward being able to develop (and answer) your own questions, which I view as being one of the most important components of doctoral training.
To learn about my perspectives toward mentoring doctoral students, you may want to visit my blog.
In addition to criteria of the Zilber College and UWM for admission, the successful applicant will have a strong demonstrated interest in environmental epidemiology and prior coursework or employment to demonstrate the potential for success in this area. Applicants with a master’s degree (e.g. MPH) are especially encouraged to apply. More information, including links to apply via SOPHAS, are found here.