1260 Mayo (MMC 807)
420 Delaware Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Home >Prospective Students : Specialty Tracks

Specialty Tracks

Listed below are available academic specialties in EnHS:

Environmental Chemistry

Environmental Chemistry examines the interactions of pollutants with air, water, soil, and their exposures to humans and wildlife. The curriculum emphasizes the processes that control chemical behavior, transport, and fate as a function of environmental factors and chemical properties.

Current laboratory research focuses on understanding the processes that govern organic toxicant behavior in the aquatic environment. Fundamental research in the laboratory is also conducted to develop and test hypotheses of chemical behavior in the "real world."

The environmental chemistry laboratory participates in a large multi-agency effort that is developing a model for use in the Great Lakes that describes toxic chemical behavior. Additional projects concentrate on the relative roles of atmospheric versus non-atmospheric sources of chemicals to the Great Lakes and the state of Minnesota, to aid in the management and regulation of the ecosystem.

Degree Options: MS | PhD

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Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology

Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology (EOE) strives to understand the causal impact of environment and occupation on human health, because public health interventions are most likely to be effective when disease and injury etiology is understood. Epidemiologists develop studies to identify factors that cause diseases and injuries.

The study of environmental and occupational epidemiology requires knowledge of both subject matter and methods. The curriculum emphasizes both, comprising epidemiologic methods, biostatistics, basic sciences, toxicology, and environmental health. Students may focus in one of three components: exposures related to cancer, exposures related to injury, or epidemiologic methods.

Degree Options: MS | MPH | PhD

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Environmental Health Policy

Environmental Health Policy (EHP) provides broad, multidisciplinary training in environmental health issues, including occupational health, risk assessment, risk management, decision making, and policy analysis.

The multidisciplinary curriculum includes course work in core public health and environmental health sciences, research methods, statistics, exposure and risk assessment, environmental and occupational health policy, and policy economics. Internship experiences are arranged with leading occupational and environmental health policy experts who assist students with synthesizing and applying their academic experiences to potential professional settings. Students participate in ongoing research in the areas of policy making and evaluation, risk assessment and risk management, and policy

Degree Options: MS | MPH | PhD

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Exposure Sciences

Humans are exposed to hazards in the home, in the workplace, and outdoors. They may be exposed through the air, water, soil, and food to chemical, physical, and biological hazards. If these exposures are of sufficient intensity and duration, they can affect the public health.

Students in the Exposure Science program will study methods for the identification, measurement and simulation of human exposure and dose resulting from single and multimedia environmental exposures. Students will receive training on various aspects of exposure analysis such as measurements and modeling; chemical, biological, and physical principles required to analyze human exposure from single and multiple routes; mechanisms of exposure; development of molecular biomarkers; and genomic, proteomic, and metabolomic metrics that assess exposure in the context of health effects.

Although each student's particular graduate program will be customized to their background and interests, all students learn about characterizing exposures to various kinds of environmental agents, about health effects associated with these exposures, and about methods for controlling such exposures in the workplace or general environment. The students will undergo training in theory, and to state-of-the-art techniques for air and biological monitoring, for characterizing aerosols, for mathematical modeling in uncertain environments, for designing control systems, and for science-based risk assessment. You will also benefit from specialized research areas represented among the EnHS faculty. Finally, by working with your EnHS advisor you will be exposed to the fundamental elements of scientific critical thinking - how to develop an idea into a research hypothesis, how to test the hypothesis with appropriate methods, how to make scientific inferences, and how to publish the results of your work.

Graduates will be well prepared for a research career in academia, government or the private sector.

Degree Options: MS

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Environmental Physiology

The Environmental Physiology doctoral program trains scholars and future leaders to apply cutting edge advances in biology and technology to address issues concerning the protection of human health. This transdisciplinary program emphasizes a new perspective on the study of how humans, as complex heterogeneous biological systems, respond and adapt to their environment.  Such study is required to understand the role of the environment in injury and disease, and to shape future technologies and policy for monitoring and protecting human health.

This doctoral-only program will attract students who are motivated to apply their basic science skills to solving current issues involved in the prevention of disease. The emphasis of the program will be toxicology as systems biology with a focus on mechanisms of toxicant–caused diseases.  We view toxicants in the broadest possible definition.  So they span from drugs to environmental agents.

This program involves a year of intensive coursework that culminates in completion of the preliminary written and oral exams. Students begin their dissertation research by the beginning of their second year and are expected to graduate within four years of entering the program. 

Degree Options: PhD

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General Program

Students are admitted to the General Program in Environmental Health when they are looking for a program of study that does not fit precisely with the specialty tracks defined in the environmental health sciences major. Emphasis is on the development of a broad, solid foundation in environmental health, with a larger than usual number of elective credits to allow the student an opportunity to pursue their particular interests. Planning such a program requires careful discussion between the student and faculty advisor.

It is occasionally possible for students to transfer into a specialty track after admission to the general program. This is viewed on a cases by case basis. Applicants to the general program should not assume that they will easily be able to transfer into another concentration.

Degree Options: MS | MPH

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Global Environmental Health

The Global Environmental Health track provides key information for individuals looking to work in the field of global environmental health either overseas or in the U.S. Issues of water and air quality, food safety, and the effects of industrialization are examined, as well as major ecological problems such as deforestation and sustainable agriculture.

Interactions between the physical environment and biological health risks are considered also, as the effects of globalization of trade and the rapid movement of populations from one part of the world to the other are important “vectors” for the spread of disease globally.

Degree Options: MS | MPH

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Industrial Hygiene

Industrial hygiene (IH) is concerned with the health and safety of people at work, and the community at large. Specific concerns are with the recognition, evaluation and control of potential workplace hazards, including chemical, physical and biological agents; and the potential health threats to the community and the environment.

View full IH program details

Hazardous Substances Academic Training (HSAT) is a sub-specialty within the IH track that trains master's level professionals with an emphasis in hazardous wastes and hazardous materials health and safety management. Students in this area take all the IH required courses and in addition complete practicum and research project work in the field of hazardous materials or hazardous waste management.

View full HSAT program details

Degree Options: MS & MPH | PhD

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Environmental Infectious Diseases

The Environmental Infectious Diseases (EID) specialty is concerned with the emergence of food-borne and infectious diseases in the United Sates and around the world. The environment, and changing conditions in the environment can have a great impact on the distribution and occurrence of infectious diseases. Global climate change is a growing concern regarding the potential expansion of tropical vector borne diseases. In evaluating the chain of infection, environment may play a key role in reservoir maintenance, as well as a route of transmission through food, water, and air.

From basic principles of infection control to predicting the impact of emerging infections, this program will explore the environmental factors associated with infectious diseases.

Degree Options: MS | MPH | PhD

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Occupational and Environmental Health Nursing

Occupational and Environmental Health Nursing (OEHN) provides intensive training for nurses interested in the development, management and evaluation of health services, programs, and policies designed to promote health and prevent work-related injuries and disease.

View full OEHN program details

Degree Options: MS | MPH | PhD

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Occupational and Environmental Medicine

The Occupational and Environmental Medicine (OEM) residency program trains physicians who will improve the health and safety of workers. The program emphasizes a solid clinical basis for the practice of occupational medicine and the management of patients with work-related health problems, as well as the identification and remediation of occupational risks and hazards in the workplace.

View full OEM program details

Degree Options: MPH

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Regulatory Toxicology and Risk Assessment

Regulatory Toxicology and Risk Assessment teaches students to think analytically about the biochemical mechanisms of toxicity, and how toxicology is used to protect human health through laboratory research, and the development of sound environmental policy and regulations.

Students with a strong background in the biological sciences who are interested in laboratory research or environmental regulation and policy are encouraged to enter this field. The curriculum emphasizes the basic biological sciences, including physiology, biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology, toxicology and environmental health.

Article: Opportunities Abound in Toxicology (from sciencemag.org)

Degree Options: MPH

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