Life in the epidemiology department is never dull. We pride ourselves on working in a casual and friendly environment while still maintaining the highest standards in everything we do.  There are many enriching opportunities for faculty, staff, student, and alumni to grow and excel. Below is a small sampling of viewpoints.

Chandra Caldwell, Assistant to the Chair
When I first started working in the department, I had little knowledge about the field of epidemiology. However, after being able to work closely with some of the senior faculty, my knowledge of epidemiology quickly expanded. From planning meetings about pharmacoepidemiology and infectious diseases to editing journal articles about cancer and cardiovascular disease, I have truly been educated about epidemiology across the board. But working with the faculty, students and other staff in the department has been a pleasure.

Jay. S. Kaufman, PhD, Associate Professor of Epidemiology
Though I have been at various epidemiology departments over the years, either as a student, post-doc, faculty or visiting lecturer, I have never encountered one with as richly cohesive a departmental culture as UNC. Whereas other departments tend to be segregated into program areas that vie for attention and resources, UNC is populated by students, staff and faculty who seem to be engaged in a common project, and who help each other regularly with research questions, stop their busy days to enjoy a laugh or a story, or attend each other’s presentations. The environment is remarkably unpretentious for a school that is so highly ranked, and people just carry on with their work humbly and diligently, but never too slavishly that they fail to look up and say “hi”, or to stop by the Student Services Office for a little bit of gossip or an off-color joke. A remarkable trait of the department is that we all just get along. Perhaps we accomplish this by saving all of our animosity for the Duke basketball team.

Lizzi Torrone, PhD Candidate
"Empty home office"
Although I recently purchased a house complete with home office, I often come to the epid student room to work. While the computers, printer, wireless connection and cubicle space provide me with the means to stay productive, the bigger resources are my fellow students.  Whether it's someone to walk with to "the nook" to get a snack during a work break or someone's bookshelf to raid for a methods book or someone to ask a how-do-I-(fill in with anything)-in-SAS/stata question or someone to remind me about a seminar I might be interested in, my classmates are consistently there to support (and occasionally entertain) me.

 

Here are some photographs taken in McGavran Greenberg Hall, early 2008 .

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