The emphasis of the MS in environmental and occupational health is directed towards the theoretical underpinnings of environmental health sciences and toxicology with more limited involvement in laboratory-based research. The program is designed as an integrated modern curriculum combining the training in the toxicological and environmental biophysics disciplines that are traditional to the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health with the new and continually developing fields of cellular and molecular pathobiology of environmental disease and gene environment interactions.
The program provides an understanding of how relevant environmental exposures, laboratory based model systems, and gene-environment responses can be interpreted and applied to the study of disease etiology in exposed and potentially exposed human populations. The MS degree may be awarded as a terminal degree to students who do not enter the PhD program.