Infectious Disease Dynamics, Analytics, and Modeling Certificate Program

This certificate program will provide students from diverse academic backgrounds with the skills to use mathematical and statistical modeling techniques to quantify and predict the spread of infectious diseases. 

Students in the Certificate in Infectious Disease Dynamics, Analytics, and Modeling will take coursework covering 1) the foundational epidemiological principles of infectious diseases, 2) advanced mathematical, statistical, and computational techniques relevant to analyzing infectious disease data, and 3) a specialized course on applied infectious disease modeling. They will be able to calculate metrics describing disease transmission; create mechanistic models of disease transmission, clinical progression, and control; use statistical methods to estimate model parameters and forecast disease dynamics; critically evaluate disease models in the scientific literature; and communicate model results to diverse stakeholders.

The program is designed for full-time graduate degree students across JHU schools who wish to augment their degree with coursework in modeling infectious disease dynamics. The target student population and the curriculum design of the certificate program reflect the intrinsically interdisciplinary nature of infectious disease modeling and the diverse backgrounds of the current workforce. JHU already has a robust system for students to enrolled in courses in different divisions from their home programs and has a unified academic calendar across schools.

Educational Objectives

Upon conclusion of the Infectious Disease Dynamics, Analytics, and Modeling certificate program, the student will:

• Describe the observed epidemiological patterns for important infectious diseases around the world and their biological, sociological, and environmental drivers
• Understand the predominant methods of infectious disease control and the pathogens to which they apply
• Be familiar with the metrics used to quantify disease transmissibility and the methods used to estimate
• Translate biological, epidemiological, and medical features of an infectious disease into a mechanistic mathematical models
• Develop and apply statistical methods to estimate model parameters and predict disease spread or outcomes
• Understand the different types of infectious disease models (e.g. mathematical vs. statistical, stochastic vs. deterministic, well-mixed vs. network) and the different uses of models (e.g. inference vs. forecasting vs. scenario projection)
• Understand the common challenges of real-world infectious disease data and methods to deal with data limitations
• Critically evaluate infectious disease models in the scientific literature
• Communicate the results of models, including their critical assumptions and uncertainty, to both technical and non-technical audiences

Please reach out to BSPH.EpiAcademic@jhu.edu to see the full certificate curriculum requirements. Please also review the certificate completion requirements.