A concentration in The Biology of Global Health (GloHeal) gives students a unique perspective on how medicine cannot be separated from biological and public health concepts. Combine the best of all three Biology departments (and beyond) in a flexible academic pathway to a variety of careers in health and health-related fields.
Interested in understanding the intersections between medicine, public health and nutrition, agriculture, and the environment?
Making Connections Everywhere
Our world is increasingly populated, connected by rapid transportation and trading, by technology, and by microbes. This has tremendous impact on human health. Understanding of the connections between human, animal, and environmental health is critical to improve human health, control and prevent disease outbreaks. GloHeal is a new
concentration in the Biological Sciences major that is intended to prepare the future scientific workforce for current and upcoming societal, health and environmental challenges. Global Health is a rapidly evolving field in health sciences. It is highly interdisciplinary, covering a broad spectrum of fields including medicine, public health, nutrition,
environmental science, climate change, agriculture, anthropology, business, and health policy. It aims to improve the health and well-being of humanity through a holistic approach, cohesively addressing multi-layered and complex issues. It will provide students with an education that crosses biological sub-disciplinary lines by emphasizing the
interconnectedness of human, public, animal, plant, and environmental health.
The majority of the GloHeal curriculum is drawn from pre-existing courses offered by the three Biology departments (BCMB, EEB, and MICRO). In addition, among the course options are individual offerings from Agronomy, Africana Studies, Anthropology, Chemistry, Child and Family Studies, Economics, Entomology and Plant Pathology, Geology, Nutrition, Public Health, and Wildlife and Fisheries. Each course is one of several options within a required category, yielding more flexibility in accommodating variations in course offerings.
With the concentration in GloHeal, students will gain knowledge of local and global health issues with a multidisciplinary perspective, understand a broad spectrum of biological sciences that are related to global health, understand the social, economic, political, and environmental factors that shape individual, community and population
health, and be able to critically analyze biological data. Students can pursue research in laboratories in BCMB, EEB, and MICRO and gain valuable experience in the labs by working under one of the professors in these departments.