Academics
Our academic programs are preparing leaders to advance health and health care.
Academic opportunities take many forms at The Institute for Medicine and Public Health. Our community of centers and various programs is a hub for career development activities that range from degree programs to training fellowships and faculty career development awards.
Graduate Degree Programs
Ph.D. in Epidemiology
Vanderbilt provides an extraordinary site for the study and advancement of epidemiology, instilling exceptional skill in advanced quantitative methods through rigorous classroom, computing and experience-based teaching in causal logic, inference, probability, and theoretical grounding for study design and data analysis. The Institute for Medicine and Public Health and the Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center have 25 researchers conducting epidemiologic studies, with more than $70 million in funding and multiple population–based studies with survey data and biological samples from 250,000 subjects.
Master of Science in Clinical Investigation
The Master of Science in Clinical Investigation (M.S.C.I.) Program trains investigators in the techniques and processes utilized in patient-oriented research, providing direct, mentored experience in clinical investigation and, through didactic work, a strong foundation in study design, biostatistics, biomedical ethics, clinical pharmacology, human genetics and assay methods.
Master of Public Health
The two-year Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) program, offered by the Vanderbilt School of Medicine for physicians and other doctoral-level health care professionals, provides training for via didactic course work, public health practicum, and mentored research, the latter resulting in a thesis.
Fellowships and Research Training
The Institute for Medicine and Public health offers research, training and mentorship for clinical fellows in their research years through a variety of opportunities. The goal is to create mutually beneficial partnerships that produce synergy between education, professional development, and the conduct of research. Institute programs include:
Quality Scholar´s Program
The National Quality Scholars Fellowship Program is offered through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs as a model for teaching and learning about quality improvement in health care.
Institute for Global Health Research and Training Projects
Numerous programs offered by Vanderbilt´s Institute for Global Health in collaboration with its partners around the world provide opportunities to train scientists and research support staff to conduct independent research and training in their home countries. For example, the AIDS International Research and Training Program (AITRP) in conjunction with the University of Alabama at Birmingham is a training partnership with international collaborators from Bangladesh, China, India, Pakistan and Zambia. The Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholars (FICRS) program in collaboration with The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) provides mentored training through which U.S. graduate students participate in clinical research and hands-on experience at top-ranked, NIH-funded research centers in countries including Botswana, Brazil, China, Haiti, India, Mali, and Peru, among others. Visit VIGH Education for additional details.
The Institute for Medicine and Public Health and the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health are partnering with the Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control (Shanghai CDC) and Prevention, Fudan University, and the Shanghai Cancer Institute (SCI) to establish the Vanderbilt-Shanghai Chronic Disease Research Training Program (VU-Shanghai CDRTP) to train the next generation of chronic disease researchers and build research capacity and local training facilities in China. This program will have a significant impact on chronic disease research and prevention in China, and possibly extend to other developing countries.
The CDRTP will: (1) train a cadre of experts to conduct multi-disciplinary research in chronic disease and build training capacity in China; (2) train a new generation of scientists and future leaders in chronic disease research in China; (3) build research capacity in China and to establish long-term collaborative relationships with Vanderbilt chronic disease researchers; (4) ensure and document the long-term success of the training program in China as facilitated and upgraded through this award; and (5) build national and international leadership in chronic disease research and prevention through existing and newly established networks. The training program includes short-term scholar training (3 months at Vanderbilt), graduate training (1-2 years of didactic course work at Fudan University, a 3-month research practicum at the Shanghai CDC or SCI, and 1 year of thesis research at Vanderbilt), workshops, and an international conference. The training will focus on advanced epidemiological and biostatistical methodology, design and execution of multidisciplinary research projects, and building expertise on cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes research, as well as grant writing skills. The Vanderbilt-Shanghai CDRTP, building upon the strength of existing research and training programs and long-standing collaborations among the participating institutes, will have a significant and long-term impact on chronic disease research and prevention in China. For more information: Han-Zhu Qian (han-zhu.qian@vanderbilt.edu), Program Director or Bethanie Hull (bethanie.j.hull@vanderbilt.edu), Program Coordinator
Postdoctoral Fellowships at Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center
The Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center offers multiple postdoctoral fellow and junior faculty positions in research in the molecular and nutritional epidemiology of cancer and other chronic diseases. Exciting opportunities exist to participate in over a dozen federally funded epidemiological studies; areas of ongoing research include diet and nutrition, environmental exposures, genetic and other biomarkers for disease risk and progression, as well as quality of life in cancer survivors.
Faculty Career Development
The Institute for Medicine and Public Health at Vanderbilt also provides research and training opportunities for tenured and non-tenured faculty to fuel career development. These programs increase or enhance skills needed to conduct high quality research in an academic environment.
The Vanderbilt Environmental Health Science Scholars (VEHSS) Program
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences K12 Grant
The Vanderbilt Environmental Health Science Scholars (VEHSS) Program focuses on developing a unique didactic core in research methodology and capitalizing on existing career development resources to build a cadre of leaders in multidisciplinary patient-oriented research in environmental health sciences, ultimately increasing the impact of environmental health sciences research at Vanderbilt University and Meharry Medical College. The program also leverages the shared resources of the Vanderbilt-Meharry Alliance to increase the number of underrepresented minorities serving as scholars, mentors, and leaders in environmental health sciences research.
Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women´s Health (BIRCWH)
BIRCWH fosters career development in women´s health research with an emphasis on interdisciplinary mentoring across a variety of disciplines. The research plan of the program, representing a partnership between Vanderbilt and Meharry Medical College, is designed around six interdisciplinary research themes: cancer/neoplasia, cardiovascular/diabetes, clinical pharmacology, neurosciences/behavioral health, endometrial biology/reproductive toxicology, health services/outcomes research. Selected scholars have the opportunity to interact with mentors from a variety of departments/schools including the school of medicine, clinical departments, preventive medicine, psychiatry and the Institute for Public Policy Studies. Read more information about the Vanderbilt BIRCWH program.