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)
|
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.