Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Public Health - Nutrition Option

Doctoral applicants should have earned a bachelor’s degree and have demonstrated basic research competency through a required thesis (M.S. thesis, honors thesis or equivalent research experience). An applicant is expected to have completed the equivalent of the Nutrition Core courses required for the M.S. degree. Otherwise, any deficiency must be completed before a student is allowed to take the comprehensive examination for the Ph.D. degree.

Degree Requirements

Candidates select a minor in addition to the major in nutrition. A total of 57 credits including the following:

1. Ph.D. Dissertation, NUTRITN 899 (18 credits)

2. Graduate Seminar (3 credits)
The student presents three seminars, one in Nutrition, one in the Minor, and the third in either.

3. Nutrition (major concentration) (24 credits) from:
NUTRITN 630 Nutrition and Chronic Diseases
NUTRITN 640 Public Health Nutrition
NUTRITN 714 Advanced Nutrition­—Vitamins
NUTRITN 715 Advanced Nutrition—Minerals
NUTRITN 731 Nutritional Assessment
NUTRITN 741 Methods in Nutrition Research
PUBHLTH 630 Principles of Epidemiology
PUBHLTH 634 Nutritional Epidemiology
PUBHLTH 640 Intermediate Biostatistics

4. Minor concentration (12 credits)
To be selected from within the School of Public Health and Health Sciences or another appropiate Ph.D.-granting program.

5. Comprehensive Examination:
Upon completion of the 39 credits of course work, the student must pass a comprehensive examination. The comprehensive examination consists of two parts:

Written examination: Each Ph.D. student is required to write the examinations in two areas, Nutrition (major area) and the minor area declared by the student.

Oral examination: A continuation of the written examination with added emphasis on the student’s area of research interests.

6. Dissertation defense
Upon successful completion of the comprehensive examination, the student prepares a dissertation proposal that must be approved by the dissertation committee before being submitted to the Graduate School.

Note: The Ph.D. degree in Public Health does not require competency in a foreign language.