Scientists in nearly all disciplines collect quantifiable data. We biostatisticians, working with our scientist colleagues, develop methods to optimally collect and analyze the data from the many types of studies conducted in the health sciences. The field of biostatistics is thus at the cutting edge of all new developments in the health sciences. The Department of Biostatistics at the University of North Carolina is proud to be one of the leading academic research departments of biostatistics in the world. For over fifty years, our department has been at the forefront of biostatistical and public health training and research.

The graduate and undergraduate training in our department is rigorous, challenging, and state-of-the art. Our students take difficult and interesting courses in statistical theory and applications. At the same time, most of our students participate actively in the methodological and collaborative research that our faculty is conducting. Graduates of our program are prepared to be leaders in biostatistics, and a roster of over 1000 successful alumni illustrates this. Our graduates are faculty members at leading universities around the world, directors of units at the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control, and are leaders of research units in the pharmaceutical industry.

Essentially all of our graduate students receive at least partial financial support. This comes from our training grants in environmental biostatistics, demography, clinical trials, and cancer genomics. Faculty research projects currently funding graduate students include studies of methods of increasing physical activity in teen-age girls, new methods of producing and reading mammograms, treatments of HIV/AIDS, cancer and cardiovascular disease, statistical genomics, and many others too numerous to list here.

As you can see from this partial list of research projects, our faculty is very actively involved in important and timely research. At the same time, they are excellent teachers, and several of our faculty members have won teaching awards given by the School of Public Health and the University.

If you are considering biostatistics as a career, I hope that you will consider joining the Carolina Biostatistics family. I think you will be impressed with the academic rigor of our program and the collegiality of our faculty, staff, students, and alumni. Please explore our web page, and if you have questions, do not hesitate to contact us. We look forward to receiving your application.

Michael R. Kosorok, Ph.D.
Chair of Biostatistics