Graduate Program in Environmental and Industrial Hygiene

GUIDELINES for M.S. DEGREE

Program Description
Admissions Requirement
Faculty Profile
Required Courses for Comprehensive Practise
Elective Additional Courses for Student Choosing an Area of Concentration
Additional Elective Courses
Additional Notes on Courses
Telephone Directory

Program Description

This program seeks to prepare individuals with the skills, scientific knowledge and state-of-the art expertise to anticipate, identify, evaluate, and control health hazards and causes of discomfort in the workplace and other environments. The curriculum covers the most important aspects of human exposure assessment, including air contamination with dust and microorganisms, noise, radiation, and chemical exposures. It also includes ventilation, ergonomics, risk assessment, biological monitoring, hazardous waste management, and worker training as well as courses in biostatistics, epidemiology and toxicology. Graduate courses lead to the degrees of Master of Science (M.S.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.).

The M.S. program in Environmental and Industrial Hygiene is accredited by the American Academy of Industrial Hygiene through the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc. (ABET). The Environmental and Industrial Program is a component of the University of Cincinnati Education and Research Center (ERC) supported by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Financial support for qualifying students is available from the ERC. In addition, students may apply for special fellowships from the University of Cincinnati for tuition.

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Admissions Requirement

Candidates for master's degrees in Environmental and Industrial Hygiene and in Occupational Safety and Ergonomics must hold a baccalaureate degree based on a minimum of 120 semester hours or the equivalent that shall include 60 or more, and preferably 68 or more, semester-hour credits in undergraduate- or graduate-level courses in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology, with at least 15 of those at the upper (junior, senior, or graduate) level and a minimum of 21 semester-hour credits, or the equivalent in communications, humanities, and social sciences. Applicants to these programs must have taken at least three of the following one year college courses, with above average grades: chemistry, biology, physics and calculus. Doctoral candidates in these programs must have had one-year courses in all of these areas. The Graduate Record Examination is also required as is, for International students, a minimum score of 580 or the TOEFL examination.

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Faculty Profile

Each of the core faculty members has broad-based experience in environmental hygiene practice and is a specialist in one or more areas of environmental and industrial hygiene, air quality or occupational safety research. Each core faculty is qualified to teach at the practitioner and advanced scientific levels. The core faculty is assisted at both levels by colleagues in the Department and the University as well as by Volunteer faculty members and lecturers from industry and governmental institutes in the Cincinnati area. A brief description of each of the core faculty's and support staff's areas of specialization is given below:

Core Faculty and Support Staff

Professor Emeritus Howard E. Ayer, CIH, C.S.P., has experience in industrial hygiene laboratory and field research, practice and training. His laboratory and field studies have included aerosols (oil mist, silica dust and asbestos), radiation (uranium mine radon daughter studies), noise (airport and industrial) and ventilation.

Professor Amit Bhattacharya, Ph.D., CPE, was trained in the field of mechanical engineering with specialization in biomedical engineering and stress physiology. His research efforts are in biomechanics, ergonomics and stress physiology.

Professor Scott Clark, Ph.D., P.E., CIH, has a background in environmental health engineering and has been focussing his efforts on exposure pathways and intervention evaluation for environmental lead and on health effects studies and exposure assessments of workers in the waste processing industries. He is also involved in health risk assessment and lead abatement training.

Associate Professor Sergey Grinshpun, Ph.D. has a background in environmental aspects of aerosol physics and mechanics. He is involved in research on aerosol sampling and analysis applied to biological and physical aspects of aerosols. He is also engaged in the laboratory and field studies on the behavior and transport of leaded particulates in indoor environments.

Field Service Associate Professor Koka Jayasimhulu, Ph.D. was trained as a chemical engineer, biochemist and analytical chemist, specializes in the identification of metabolites and the quantitation of organic compounds by mass spectrometry and consults with graduate students and faculty on various aspects of mass spectrometry and collaborates in their research efforts.

Research Associate Professor Tiina Reponen, Ph.D., is an environmental scientist engaged in laboratory and field studies in aerobiology involving airborne microbes, fungi and pollen.

Associate Professor Carol Rice, Ph.D., CIH, specializes in the assessment of current industrial exposures and the evaluation of working-lifetime exposures. She has a special interest in historical methods of sampling and analysis which are useful in reconstructing past human exposures to evaluate exposure response relationship; Director, Midwest Consortium for Hazardous Waste Worker Training

Field Service Assistant Professor Emeritus Jozef Svetlik, B.S., has many years experience in the development and use of instruments for air sampling and measurement of physical factors and coordinates the plant visitation course.

Professor M. Wilson Tabor, Ph.D., has a background in biological chemistry, toxicology and analytical chemistry. His research efforts include trace analysis of environmental pollutants, biodegradation of hazardous wastes, and biotransformation of xenobiotics to develop methods for markers and indices of human exposure to hazardous substances.

Associate Professor Glenn Talaska, Ph.D., CIH, has a background in industrial hygiene, genetic toxicology, and carcinogenesis. His research is related to biological monitoring, chemical carcinogens and includes DNA adduct analysis, cytogenetics and chemical analysis.

Professor Klaus Willeke, Ph.D., CIH, has a background in engineering and applied physics and has contributed primarily in the field of physical and biological aspects of aerosol science and technology. His research efforts include fundamental work on aerosol sampling and measurement techniques, deposition of aerosols in the human respiratory system, real time measurement of industrial and environmental aerosols, and new methods of respiratory protection techniques in industry and health care environments.

For more information about Core Faculty click here.

Part-Time/Adjunct and Volunteer Faculty

Paul Baron, Ph.D., National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Edward Burroughs, M.S., CIH (NIOSH), Laurence Doemeny, Ph.D. (NIOSH), Richard Fulwiler, Ph.D. (Technology Leadership Associates), James McGlothlin, Ph.D. (NIOSH), Eugene Moss, Ph.D. (NIOSH), Judd Posner, Ph.D. (NIOSH), Rodney Simmons, Ph.D. (Board of Certified Safety Professionals), Thurman Wenzl, Ph.D. (NIOSH)

UC Department of Environmental Health Faculty Interacting with Program Faculty and Students

Roy E. Albert, M.D., Marshall Anderson, Ph.D., Stuart Baxter, Ph.D., Eula Bingham, Ph.D., Robert Bornschein, Ph.D., Ralph Buncher, Sc.D.,Kim Dietrich, Ph.D., Kathleen Dixon, Ph.D., Peter Gartside, Ph.D., Judy Jarrell, Ed.D., George Leikauf, Ph.D., Grace Lemasters, Ph.D., Douglas Linz, M.D., James Lockey, M.D., John Loper, Ph.D., Roy McKay, Ph.D., Ann Middaugh, M.D., Marian Miller, Ph.D., Daniel Nebert, M.D., Jon Reid, Ph.D., Howard Shertzer, Ph.D., Rakesh Shukla, Ph.D., Raymond Suskind, M.D., David Warshawsky, Ph.D., Jonathan Wiest, Ph.D.

Other UC Department Faculty Teaching Required or Recommended Courses

Chemical and Nuclear Engineering: David Greenberg, Ph.D., Sotiris Pratsinis, Ph.D.

Civil and Environmental Engineering: David Altman, J.D., Pratim Biswas, Ph.D., Timothy Keener, Ph.D., Riley Kinman, Ph.D., James Morand, Ph.D., Janet Rickebaugh, M.S., Pasquale Scarpino, Ph.D. (Joint Appointment in Environmental Health)

Mathematics and Applied Science: Mary Fox, M.S.

Mechanical, Industrial and Nuclear Engineering: Roy Eckart, Ph.D., Ash Genaidy, Ph.D., Urmila Ghia, Ph.D., Ronald Huston, Ph.D., Anil Mital, Ph.D., Richard Shell, Ph.D., Henry Spitz, Ph.D., James Thorpe, Ph.D.

Radiology: James Kereiakas, Ph.D.

Otolaryngology: Robert Keith, Ph.D.

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Required Courses for Comprehensive Practice

a) Industrial Hygiene and Safety Practice is offered Autumn and Winter quarters. This course is comprised of a total of 10-12 field trips during the Autumn and Winter quarters. MS. students are required to attend all and to submit reports for 5. For attendance of 5 field trips and for two reports, they will receive 2 credits for 26-905-981 (Special Topics in Industrial Hygiene, Autumn). For attendance in 5 more trips and for acceptance of 3 additional reports they will receive 3 credits for 26-904-905 (Industrial Hygiene and Safety Practice, Winter). There is thus a total of 5 credits for 5 reports and for participation in all the scheduled field trips.

b) The student is expected to take all courses listed above (59 credits for basic programs, 66 for Hazardous Substances option). Any required course may be waived with the permission of the instructor and advisor when the student has already had the equivalent course content. Another course with equivalent credit hours must then be selected. Upon joining the M.S. program, the student is assigned an academic advisor. As the student's research interests develop, a different advisor can be chosen, and a Thesis Committee is appointed.

c) Student may elect to initiate thesis research during this quarter.

d) May be taken any quarter Year 2.

e) Required only for Hazardous Substances Academic Training option in Environmental and Industrial Hygiene.

f) Only one of these courses is required.

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Elective Additional Courses Suggested
For Student Choosing an Area of Concentration

* EVENING CLASSES

NOTE: Each Area of Concentration reflects the active research interest of at least one faculty member teaching in this Program.

Please consult the University of Cincinnati "Courses of Instruction Bulletin" for a more extensive listing of available courses. Other relevant courses may be taken instead of the ones listed above. Please see your advisor to work out a program suitable for your interests.

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Additional Elective Courses

NOTE: In addition to the elective courses listed under Areas of Concentration
on the previous pages, the following courses may be of interest.

(p) permission of instructor
* may be taken any quarter.

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Additional Notes About Courses

"Industrial Hygiene and Safety Practice" is offered Autumn and Winter quarters. This course is comprised of a total of 10 field trips during the Autumn and Winter quarter. M.S. students are required to attend all and to submit reports for 5. For attendance of 5 field trips, they will receive 2 credits for 26-905-981 (Special Topics in Industrial Hygiene, Autumn), for attendance in 5 more trips and for acceptance of 5 reports they will receive 3 credits for 26-904-905 (Industrial Hygiene and Safety Practice, Winter).

Teaching Practicum. There is a requirement of a minimum of one credit of teaching practicum for M.S. students in the second year of study. The teaching practicum requirement applies to all full and part-time graduate students irrespective of source of funding. Conduct of one laboratory experiment in the Air Sampling and Analysis sequence carries one graduate credit, to experiments carry two graduate credits, for example. In conducting experiments, the student is responsible for all attendant duties such as setup, laboratory teaching, cleanup, report reviewing and grading. Practicum assignments in other courses are also available. Each single credit hour is approximately equal to thirty hours of experience.

An acceptable Master's thesis demonstrating critical judgment is required. Upon acceptance of a "Statement of Intent", the thesis is performed under the guidance of an appointed committee. While working on the thesis, the student may sign up for thesis credits, up to 15 credit hours per quarter.

Students with financial support are required to maintain satisfactory progress towards a degree. This generally requires at least 15 credit hours each quarter. The standard tuition fee allows up to 19 credit hours per quarter.

Graduate students wishing to pursue a Ph.D. degree in the Environmental and Industrial Hygiene Program may, with permission and upon acceptance into the program, proceed without a M.S. degree.

All requirements must be completed no later than 7 years from entry into the degree program.

Also consult "Guidelines for the Degree of Master of Science", "Policy for External Thesis Work", and other information provided by the Graduate Studies Office of the Department of Environmental Health.

For further information, please contact:

Graduate Studies Office

Telephone: (513) 558-5704
or
Environmental Hygiene Science & Engineering Office
Telephone: (513) 558-1747
Department of Environmental Health, University of Cincinnati Medical Center
Mail Location 0056, Cincinnati, OH 45267-0056

THESE GUIDELINES ARE EFFECTIVE AS OF SEPTEMBER 1997. CONTACT THE GRADUATE STUDIES OFFICE OF THE DEPARTMENT TO INSURE THAT THESE ARE THE MOST UP-TO-DATE GUIDELINES.

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Telephone Directory 

Offices

Faculty and Staff:

*Room Numbers
KL - Kettering Lab
HPB - Health Professions Building

Research and Service Laboratories:

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