PhD

The mission of the VDPAM PhD Program is to promote research, disseminate knowledge, and create future leaders in the area of Population Sciences in Animal Health.

By nature, research and training in Population Sciences is cross-disciplinary with other graduate programs at ISU, e.g., agricultural and biosystems engineering, animal science, animal behavior and welfare, bioinformatics and computational biology, ecology and evolutionary biology, economics, genetics and genomics, immunobiology, veterinary microbiology, veterinary pathology, statistics, and toxicology.

The student's work and progress will be under the supervision of a major professor and a Program of Study committee. Successful completion of the program is achieved through the defense of a doctoral dissertation and completion of at least 72 credits. There is a minimum of 26 credits from coursework, and the remaining credits are typically Research credits (VDPAM 699), available for students during all semesters.

Required courses (minimum of 18 course credits):

A. Required core courses (select all)

Course

Description

Credits

Semester

GR ST 565 
 

Responsible Conduct of Research

1 Cr

S, F

STAT 5870 ON*

Statistical Methods for Research Workers

4 Cr

S, SS, F

VDPAM 5270 ON

Applied Statistical Methods in Population Studies

3 Cr

Alt F, Odd

VDPAM 5280 ON

Principles of Epidemiology and Population Health

3 Cr

S

VDPAM 5290 ON

Epidemiological Methods in Population Research

3 Cr

Alt F, Even

B. Required applied courses (select at least 2 out of 6):

Course

Description

Credits

Semester

VDPAM 5600 ON

Ecology of Infectious Disease

3 Cr

Alt S, Odd

VDPAM 5620X

Applied Diagnostic Technologies

3 Cr

Alt F, Even

VDPAM 5640 ON

Animal Welfare Science and Research

2 Cr

Alt S, Even

VDPAM 6500

Swine Diagnostic Medicine

4 Cr

F

VDPAM 6540

Comparative Antimicrobial Clinical Pharmacology

2 Cr

Alt F, Odd

VDPAM 5670X

Design, Implementation and Analysis of Field Studies in Food Animals

3 Cr

Alt F, Odd

ON = available online. ON* = STAT 587 available online typically on Spring and Summer. S = Spring, SS = Summer, F = Fall.  Odd = offered in odd numbered years. Even = offered in even numbered years.

C. Elective courses: To be selected from ISU Graduate level courses in consultation with the student's Major Professor and Program of Study committee.  At least 6 credits of elective courses are required, achieving a cumulative total of at least 26 course credits. The remaining credits for a total of 72 credits may be a combination of research credits (VDPAM 699) and graduate-level courses approved by the POSC.  These can be any approved Iowa State University graduate level or dual listed course (List of courses found at https://catalog.iastate.edu/azcourses/) including, but not limited to, any remaining core courses.