Georgetown’s Board of Directors approved a plan earlier this month to offer two new graduate degrees in the fall.
Georgetown’s Medical School will offer a Master of Science in Biomedical Science Policy and Advocacy and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences will offer a new Master of Science degree in athematics and Statistics, administrators said.
Currently a specialization under the master’s degree in microbiology and immunology, the curriculum of the new medical degree will be the same, and will include courses from the fields of microbiology and immunology, biology, biochemistry, pharmacology, Nursing and Health Studies, and Science, Technology and International Affairs.
The existing program is “being recast to attract a wider student body,” Medical Center spokeswoman Amy DeMaria said.
“There is currently a disciplinary divide between the scientists and the policy makers,” said Eugenia Pyntikova, coordinator of graduate programs at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. “It’s difficult to be experts in both areas.”
Pyntikova said that when policymakers devise public health policy they frequently lack the in-depth expertise on the topics that are necessary to make intelligent policy. This program, the first of its kind, intends to bridge that divide between scientists and the realities of policymaking.
The length of the program will range from one to three years.
“This is uncharted territory and will put you in the position to fill the void of scientifically-trained individuals who can translate that experience into policy,” said Shanika Whitehurst (MED ’04), who graduated with a specialization in Science Policy and Advocacy under the existing master’s degree program in microbiology and immunology. Whitehurst graduated from the program in December and was quickly recruited as an analyst for IPA, a global consulting company.
DeMaria said that the new math and statistics degree was created in order to respond to growing demand for education in the field from students. The program plans to include a dual emphasis on concrete applications such as computer proficiency and less scientific applications, such as being able to reach multiple audiences.
“The computer has ushered in an era when massive data sets can be collected and processed – in finances, medicine, imaging science and elsewhere,” Mathematics Department Chair Andy Vogt said. “Appropriate analytical tools both in mathematics and statistics are a must for young persons in the job market.”
Vogt emphasized the applicability of the new curriculum to government work in areas such as intelligence.
“The big question is how to extract meaningful data from large amounts of information,” he said.
According to university spokeswoman Emilie Moghadam, the program is the first on the East Coast to offer specific training to apply mathematics and statistics to private industry.
“The aim will be to provide broad coverage of topics in mathematics and statistics, equipping professional students with the critical tools they need for advancement in such fields as financial mathematics, bioinformatics, data mining and mathematical and statistical modeling,” she said.
Students will be required to take a minimum of 24 course credits in mathematics and statistics and three course credits in a non-mathematical science field. The program will likely require consulting or internship experience.
Vogt said that the new program is part of an initiative to increase the presence of mathematics, statistics and hard science studies at Georgetown. “There’s a lot of hot interdisciplinary studies in the fields,” he said. The program “will build on Georgetown’s strengths – existing expertise in the mathematics department and elsewhere, a commitment to interdisciplinary studies and a sensitivity to student needs.”
