Greetings from the Department Head

I’m pleased to have this opportunity to greet you and share some information about the College of Public Health at the University of Georgia and the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. We are one of the newest and fastest growing academic units in the College and we have a wonderful cadre of faculty and students. The mission of the Department is to train public health professionals and researchers in the use of epidemiological principles and biostatistical methods and to conduct innovative research to address existing and emerging public health issues. Our department offers many exciting career opportunities in epidemiology and biostatistics and provides excellent training to prepare graduate students for both academic and professional careers through the MPH degree program in both disciplines and the Doctorate in Public Health (DrPH). If you are a prospective student, epidemiologists and biostatisticians are in great demand. Have you ever thought of a career in biomedical research? Read on.... Please peruse the information about our faculty, degree programs and application information on this web site.

The Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics has an exciting, rapidly growing research program in the areas of methods (including spatial statistics, infectious disease modeling, survival analysis), infectious disease epidemiology, methods for tuberculosis control, aids international training and research program, clinical, operational and health services research, clinical epidemiology and translational research, cancer epidemiology& prevention and control, medical screening, global health, food safety epidemiology, epidemiology of zoonoses in domestic animal-human interface, antimicrobial drug resistance of food borne pathogens, community-based research, occupational health, reproductive and developmental health, environmental health, and health disparities. The department's developing research portfolio includes methodological issues in Biostatistics including point process models for event history data , spatial epidemiology and statistics, environmental statistics, analysis of high dimensional massive data, bioinformatics ,data mining ,functional data analysis ,multiple testing, survival analysis, joint modeling of survival and longitudinal data and covariate measurement error models.

The department also has a strong tradition of significant collaboration with public and private health agencies and institutions including strong collaborative ties with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and State Regional offices, the Archway Partnership Program, Georgia Farmworker Health Program, College of Veterinary Medicine- Population Sciences, The Biomedical and Health Sciences Institute and the Faculty of Infectious Disease. New faculty hires will complement our current expertise with plans to recruit in cancer epidemiology and clinical biostatistics. You can browse our faculty directory for background and interests of our faculty.

Please feel free to contact me at jvena@uga.edu if you have any questions. I encourage you to make a gift to support the department.  For any interested prospective students, we would be happy to connect you with faculty or students who have common interests. We also encourage a visit to Athens and the UGA campus to learn about the quality of life and opportunities for faculty and students. If this is your first visit to our website, we welcome you to become a friend or member of the UGA family.

With best wishes,

John E. Vena, Ph.D.
UGA Foundation Professor
Head, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics