School of Public Health

Pitt Public Health offers degree programs in the following departments: Behavioral and Community Health Sciences; Biostatistics; Environmental and Occupational Health; Epidemiology; Health Policy & Management; Human Genetics; and Infectious Diseases and Microbiology.

As a graduate of one of the nation’s top public health schools, you’ll become part of Pitt Public Health’s vision to be a world leader in improving health.

We have realized that vision by making many groundbreaking contributions that have influenced public health practice and medical care over the years. Among them are:

The earliest National Cancer Institute-funded biostatistical studies of steelworkers in the 1950s and their increased risk factor for lung cancer, which led to the first safety standards implemented by OSHA in the early 1970s.

Early trials on immunization showing gamma globulin injection was effective in preventing polio, that laid the theoretical groundwork for the subsequent development of the first Salk polio vaccine at the University of Pittsburgh.

Seminal studies of the systemic treatment of breast cancer and trials of the drug tamoxifen, which led to fewer radical mastectomies, more less-invasive lumpectomies, and improved survival rates, and the development of genetically targeted breast cancer therapies.

Establishment of the concept of gender-based biology in the 1990s, which highlighted the underrepresentation of women in biological studies and shed light on differences in rates of illness, metabolization of medications, and lifestyle-related health issues between men and women.

A study evaluating the health care provided to uninsured low-income children in Southwestern Pennsylvania, which ultimately swayed Congress to expand the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to all 50 states.

Creation of the Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT) Health Research, the world’s first certificate program geared toward LGBT health, whose studies found that HIV/AIDs risk factors are fueled by other behaviors, such as drug use, violence, child sexual abuse, and mental health issues, such as depression and social stigma.

And we are currently studying the public health implications of the Marcellus Shale industry and its effect on the environment, which will likely inform the health policies of the next decades.