Boston University School of Public Health

Boston University School of Public Health
Name	Boston University School of Public Health
Established	1976
Type	Private
Dean	Michelle A. Williams
City	Boston
State	Massachusetts
Country	United States
Campus	Urban

Contents

Boston University School of Public Health is a professional school within Boston University that offers graduate education and research in public health disciplines. The school engages with institutions such as Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Tufts University School of Medicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, and Brigham and Women's Hospital to advance population health, health policy, epidemiology, biostatistics, and environmental health. Faculty and alumni collaborate with organizations including Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization, National Institutes of Health, United Nations, and American Public Health Association on domestic and global health initiatives.

History

The school was founded in 1976 during an era marked by developments associated with Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973, the expansion of Medicare, the work of Surgeon General of the United States, and the growth of public health education exemplified by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Early leadership drew connections to figures and institutions such as Royal Victoria Hospital (Belfast), Boston City Hospital, Soviet Union-era epidemiological collaborations, and partnerships with Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Over subsequent decades the school expanded programs influenced by events including the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the response to H1N1 pandemic, and research agendas shaped alongside National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Kaiser Family Foundation, and Gates Foundation.

The school offers degree programs at the masters and doctoral level including Master of Public Health, Master of Science in Biostatistics, Doctor of Public Health, Ph.D. in Epidemiology and specialized tracks akin to programs at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, Yale School of Public Health, and University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health. Curricula emphasize courses comparable to those offered by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and incorporate practicum partnerships with Boston Medical Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Veterans Health Administration, and international placements with Médecins Sans Frontières, World Bank, and Pan American Health Organization. Joint and dual-degree arrangements mirror collaborations seen with Boston University School of Law, Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences, and Questrom School of Business.

Research units host translational and policy-focused work in areas allied with research centers at Harvard Medical School, MIT Koch Institute, and Broad Institute. Key centers collaborate with stakeholders such as Environmental Protection Agency, Food and Drug Administration, American Heart Association, Susan G. Komen Foundation, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Topics include chronic disease research that echoes initiatives from Framingham Heart Study, infectious disease surveillance connected to Global Health Security Agenda, environmental health studies in the tradition of Rachel Carson, and health disparities research in dialogue with Office of Minority Health and programs like Healthy People.

Located in the Fenway–Kenmore neighborhood and adjacent to facilities used by Boston Medical Center and Boston University Medical Campus, the school occupies urban research and teaching spaces similar to those at Mount Sinai Health System and University of Pennsylvania Health System. Laboratories are equipped for molecular epidemiology in ways comparable to labs at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and computational resources echo capacities at National Center for Supercomputing Applications. Teaching spaces, simulation centers, and collaborative hubs support partnerships with Boston Public Schools, Massachusetts Department of Education, and community organizations such as The Fenway Institute.