For more than a century, the University of Chicago has been a global leader and anchor institution on Chicago's South Side, delivering the highest quality patient care and conducting groundbreaking biomedical research through the UChicago Medicine health system and the Biological Sciences Division. They are addressing some of the world’s and area’s most pressing medical challenges, while also training the next generation of physicians, scientists and leaders.
UChicago offers two new master’s programs designed to launch or advance careers in health. The Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences (BMS) provides comprehensive training in biomedicine to prepare students for careers in health care, research and beyond. The Master of Public Health (MPH) teaches students how to integrate scientific methods and data analysis with community partnership to tackle population health problems. Students in both programs learn from renowned UChicago scholars while gaining deep, professional support in the classroom and for their careers.
Krish Shah experienced that academic excellence and support first-hand in the Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences program. After completing a research project for the program, Shah reached out to his advisor and collaborator, Asst. Prof. Michael Drazer, MD’12, PhD’21, who encouraged him to build on the work and eventually publish it. “That level of freedom and guidance was really inspiring for me,” Shah said.
Krish Shah
It wasn’t the first time Drazer had offered support. Months earlier, when Shah mentioned he was applying to medical schools, Drazer volunteered to review essays and help with interview preparation.
“Usually, I have to reach out to people to ask if they would be available to help me,” said Shah, who will start at Stanford Medical School in August. “He was incredibly proactive and fostered a safe space to be vulnerable and ask personal questions.”
In addition to a proactive culture of support, both programs offer deep academic foundations and practical experiences, preparing students for flexible, impactful careers in medicine, research, policy and public health.
“The goal is to really help people grow, evolve or transform their career into a career in biomedicine by providing them with the scaffolding of knowledge, the lingo they need and the real-world experience that differentiates somebody as knowing their stuff in this field,” said Prof. Vineet Arora, founding director of the BMS program and Vice Dean of Education in the Biological Sciences.
Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences: A pathway toward diverse health careers
The BMS program is a one-year, full-time degree focused on the application of biomedical knowledge to health care, research and innovation. Electives are offered in areas such as science communication, biological sciences, biomedical data science, health systems science, biomedical innovation and biomedical ethics.
Eunkyung Lee, SM’25
Students complete an independent project aligned with their career goals and conclude the year with a capstone that could involve working in a research lab on a biological process, addressing biomedical myths, analyzing diagnostic or therapeutic data, or evaluating care models or policy impacts.
Eunkyung Lee, an international student from Korea who completed the BMS program in June 2025, said the program “was a transformative experience.”
In the BMS program Lee said she gained a deep understanding of how the U.S. health care system, FDA and pharmaceutical companies work. She worked on a research project on optimizing antibiotics prescriptions, while she learned valuable business knowledge by taking Booth MBA courses.
“The program equipped me with knowledge that I can apply directly to the industry,” said Lee, who started work this summer as a CMC operations associate at Monopar Therapeutics, a pharmaceutical company.
“I wouldn’t say it was easy,” Lee said, “but to be able to learn while tackling a real-world health care problem was such a valuable experience of me getting outside my comfort zone.”
Drawing on UChicago’s world-renowned research strengths in areas such as neuroscience, cancer biology, immunology, medical ethics, data science, the program prepares graduates for careers in health care, research, education, and biotech, or further study in medical or doctoral programs. Arora established the BMS program in 2021 to support early- and mid-career professionals seeking to grow or pivot in the field.
Michael Koo makes a presentation during a course in the MS in Biomedical Sciences program.
(Photo by Julian Romano)
The degree is constructed to be either a “launchpad” toward an MD or Ph.D., Arora said, “or as a natural stopping point where the student can say: ‘I want a career in this field. I’m ready to contribute, and I have the skills and knowledge I need.’”
About 35% of the program’s alums apply for advanced degrees (including medical school, Ph.D.s) after graduation.
For BMS alum Nicolas Lopez, who graduated in 2024, the program’s breadth and depth of experiences and career paths were a major draw. While applying to medical schools this year, he is also working as a health care consultant with ECG Management Consultants.
“In general, the program really set me up well to go to medical school and to do what I’m doing now—to have a plan that wasn’t medical school,” he said. “Just being around people who did so many different things really pushed us to try and seek out those things.”
In 2023, UChicago launched a joint BMS/Master of Business Administration (MBA) program with the Booth School of Business, combining biomedical science with business leadership training for careers in biotech, policy and health care innovation.
“One of the strengths of the University of Chicago is the strong connection between our co-located programs across campus,” said Prof. Samuel Volchenboum, associate dean for Masters Education. “Here we have an incredible opportunity for students to leverage both the BSD’s experience in educating the next generation of leaders in health care and the Booth’s School of Business’s long track record educating and training business students.”
Master of Public Health: Academically rigorous and community-engaged
When Sara Booth told colleagues in Boston she was heading to the Midwest to earn her MPH, some were surprised, given the number of prestigious programs on the East Coast.
But UChicago’s MPH stood out. The program offered a rare focus on data science combined with world-class faculty and the chance to help shape a relatively new degree. She earned her MPH in 2023 and now works as a biostatistician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
“It essentially transformed my career trajectory in a really big way,” Booth said of her time at UChicago. “The skills that I gained in the program set me up perfectly to do the job I’m doing right now. They were very intentional on what they were going to teach you in the program. They really did have their finger on the pulse of the field.”
Launched in 2021, the MPH is a full- or part-time accredited program that emphasizes public health research and practice, population health, health policy and research methods in the field. In addition to taking seven core courses that include biostatistics, epidemiology, health policy, social inequality and health communications, students choose one of four concentrations – epidemiology and global health; health policy; data science; or community health promotion.
The MPH also includes a practicum and capstone project that can be researched-based or applied. Examples of capstone projects may include designing and implementing a local health program; assessing a community’s health and making recommendations; and analyzing policy.
Through coursework, mentoring, and real-world engagement with public health organizations, students develop both essential professional skills, including leadership, collaboration, creativity, and stakeholder communication.
“This is a great first degree for people who are interested in going on to conduct research in public health, more education in epidemiology or in health services or even law school or medical school,” said Diane Lauderdale, chair of the Department of Public Health Sciences and the Louis Block Distinguished Service Professor of Public Health Sciences. “But it’s also for people who then directly want to go out and help with public health programs or provide support for community and public health research projects based at a university.”
“It essentially transformed my career trajectory in a really big way. The skills that I gained in the program set me up perfectly to do the job I’m doing right now.”
—Sara Booth, MPH’23, biostatistician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Graduates work in roles ranging from research management to policy coordination to data science. They are employed across public health departments, hospitals, NGOs and academic institutions.
Beyond its focus on data analysis, the program also helps students build real-world skills, Booth said. One example: she learned to create a public health intervention program, from budgeting to marketing and communications — skills she said she likely wouldn’t have gained in a biostatistics-heavy program.
“All of that makes the program really well-rounded,” Booth said.
Students benefit from strong cohort collaboration, applied experiences and direct connections with faculty and practitioners in the field.
“They brought in so many people working in the field,” Booth added. “We could just ask them questions, which was super helpful just to get a sense of: Where do you want to go from here?”
