Here you can:
Discover new
ways to
detect COVID-19.
Harness your passion for improving public health.
At DEOHS, you can:
Explore how environmental factors influence antimicrobial resistance.
Investigate how drinking water infrastructure can help reduce waterborne disease.
Study how global warming could increase the incidence of dengue fever.
Why study Infectious Diseases?
Infectious disease scientists combine skills in clinical microbiology, immunology, parasitology and virology to study how diseases such as tuberculosis, diarrheal diseases, polio, COVID-19 and other communicable diseases develop and spread, how the environment influences their transmission and new solutions to prevent, detect and control disease transmission.
As a student focusing on Infectious Diseases, you will:
- Take common core courses introducing foundational concepts and skills, including: risk assessment, management and communication; assessment and management of exposures to environmental hazards; core principles of toxicology; and how to use a One Health approach to address complex challenges.
- Learn how infectious microorganisms are transmitted to humans through air, food and water and how climate change is impacting that transmission, and gain skills in detecting and controlling microbial hazards.
- Complete a culminating experience (thesis, project or dissertation) showcasing your ability to integrate the skills you have learned to address an environmental or occupational health problem.
I chose this department because of the high caliber and range of research that the faculty is doing. Since coming to UW, I’ve gained extensive and valuable laboratory experience with different methods and microbes.
Allison Kline, MS
Environmental Health
Student research
Briahna Lynne Koger
Sexually Transmitted Infection Wastewater-Based Surveillance in Rural and Urban Washington State
MS Thesis, 2025
Faculty: Erica Fuhrmeister
Angelo Ong
Targeted, Long-Read Sequencing of Extended-Spectrum Beta-Lactamase Alleles in Seattle Area Wastewater
MS Thesis, 2024
Faculty: Erica Fuhrmeister
A. Mallory Thomas
A One Health approach to Land Tenure and Routes of Zoonotic Disease Exposure for Pastoralists in Marsabit County, Kenya
MS Thesis, 2024
Faculty: Julianne Meisner
Our faculty and research
“What really gets me up in the morning is the chance to think about cool bugs and the biology. But it’s also important to understand that the biology of infectious diseases is fundamentally affected by both social and environmental conditions.”
Karen Levy, PhD
DEOHS Professor
Research spotlight
UW-developed rapid TB testing technique endorsed by World Health Organization
Tongue-swab testing developed by DEOHS faculty member Jerry Cangelosi could revolutionize screening for TB
Tackling climate change by the numbers
From infectious diseases to wildfire smoke, new faculty member Marissa Childs predicts how climate change will influence health
Looking out for “invisible” workers
New DEOHS Assistant Professor Rachel Sklar sparks solutions for marginalized workers and communities
Career pathways
Our Environmental Public Health graduates find careers in a range of private, public, nonprofit and academic positions. Recent DEOHS graduates work as:
- Air Quality Specialist at Puget Sound Clean Air Agency.
- Quantitative Health Risk Analysis Consultant at EpiX Analytics.
- Microbiologist with the US Food and Drug Administration.
It was a personal thing to me, to do something in my country and to do something useful.
Kholood Altassan
Assistant Professor at King Saud University, Saudi Arabia