Department of Biostatistics (MPH, MSPH, MS, PhD)

The Department of Biostatistics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) offers programs leading to the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Master of Science (MS), Master of Public Health (MPH), Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH), and a Certificate in Statistical Genetics (CSG).

The MPH and MSPH degrees are offered through the School of Public Health.  These are school-wide degrees allowing a concentration in biostatistics rather than being degrees in biostatistics per se. 

The MS and PhD degrees are offered through the Graduate School.  Students entering these programs are expected to have a strong foundation in mathematics.  At the very minimum, they should have had a semester of Advanced Calculus, a semester of Advanced Matrix Algebra, and they should be proficient in computer programming skills.

George Howard, DrPH, Professor and Chair

Faculty: Professors: Allison, Barnette, Bartolucci, Cutter, Fineberg, Howard, Roth, Williams; Associate Professors: Beasley, Coffey, Page, Redden, Tiwari, Yi;  Assistant Professors: Aban, Perumean- Chaney, Cofield, Cui, Feng, Fernandez, Gao, Liu, Loraine, McClure, Person, Temple, Zhang; Instructors: Musani; Emeritus Professor: Katholi

The department has over 29 faculty members and 40 staff.  Research includes investigations in diverse areas such as latent variable models to adjust for unobserved confounders in statistical analysis, statistical methods for genetic admixture mapping, micro array data analysis, QTL analysis in experimental crosses, understanding the cause of the excess stroke mortality in the southeastern US, and advancing techniques to determine the number of patients needed in randomized clinical trials using data from nested pilot studies.

Career Opportunities

There is a high demand for biostatisticians within academia, business, industry, and government.  Consequently, starting salaries are excellent.  We invite you to join the growing field of biostatistics