Interdisciplinary Concentrations

Degree candidates have the option of pursuing a variety of interdisciplinary concentrations. These concentrations are non-degree programs designed to deepen students’ experience in academic or professional areas aligned with their career goals.

Nutrition and Global Health

The Nutrition and Global Health concentration is designed to build upon a strong base of ongoing research, teaching, collaborative work, and training in nutrition and global health at the Harvard Chan School. The concentration has four participating departments: Nutrition, Global Health and Population, Epidemiology, and Social and Behavioral Sciences, together with the involvement of the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. It takes an interdisciplinary approach to teaching and conducting research about nutrition; its effect on human and economic development; nutrition in humanitarian crisis situations; and the dynamic interplay among the epidemiologic, nutritional, and demographic transitions around the globe. The concentration is dedicated to research that stresses integrative problem solving and evaluation approaches to global health challenges, with a focus on lower- and middle-income countries.
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Obesity Epidemiology and Prevention

This interdisciplinary concentration is designed for students interested in training in the theoretical, methodological, and applied knowledge and skills necessary to conduct obesity-related epidemiologic and prevention research. The concentration includes obesity epidemiology and prevention in international settings. Areas of training include assessment of obesity in individuals and populations; biological and social determinants of obesity; epidemiologic and prevention study designs; health and social consequences of obesity; worksite-, community-, and school-based interventions; gene-environment interactions; and global obesity epidemiology and prevention. As the concentration is a nondegree program, prospective students must apply to a program in one of the participating departments or Fields of Study in School-wide programs such as the MPH program, which will issue the degree. Upon matriculation, students may elect to participate in this concentration. Students are responsible for fulfilling the requirements of the academic program within the home department or Field of Study within a School-wide program in addition to the requirements of the concentration. Students who complete the required 7.5 credits receive a Certificate of Completion.
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Additional Concentrations

Explore the full list of concentrations.