Master of Science [M.S] [Biostatistics] From Michigan State University

Required courses concentrate on the principles of study design and methods for analysis of the continuous, categorical and mixed types of biomedical data from clinical experiments and from observational studies. Elective courses are offered in analytic methods for inference from longitudinal data, genomic and genetic data, and censored data.

The Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics offers several graduate-level educational opportunities including Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degree programs in epidemiology, a Master of Science degree program in biostatistics, postdoctoral research training in epidemiology and biostatistics, and an epidemiology certificate program as a non-degree graduate program at the undergraduate level. The department also offers a Minor in Global Public Health and Epidemiology. The Department faculty also teach epidemiology and biostatistics to students pursuing medical or other graduate degrees.

Epidemiology and biostatistics are population-oriented quantitative disciplines for medical science and biomedical research; both are concerned with public health. Epidemiologists and biostatisticians work to gain increasingly definitive evidence about how to promote health and to prevent or reduce risk of disease, to delay disease onset, and to shorten or ameliorate disease-related suffering and disability.

They also help to shape the practice of evidence-based medicine through methodological and substantive contributions needed for cost effectiveness and decision analysis. Epidemiology and biostatistics are both multidisciplinary endeavors involving a mastery of biological science in health, as well as an understanding of mechanisms that link population health to societal factors and to individual-level health-related behavior that maintains or compromises health.

Students who are enrolled in Master of Science degree programs in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics may elect a Specialization in Food Safety.