Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Department of Biostatistics University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Records #40123, University Archives, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Periodic transfer from the offices that create these records.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

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The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Biometry--Study and teaching (Higher)--North Carolina.
• Education, Higher--North Carolina--History.
• Health occupations schools--North Carolina--History.
• Universities and colleges--North Carolina--Departments.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Curricula.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--History.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962). Dept. of Biostatistics.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962). School of Public Health.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill--Curricula.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill--History.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dept. of Biostatistics.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. School of Public Health.

• Office of the Dean of the School of Public Health Records (#40120)
• Office of the Vice Provost for Health Affairs Records (#40110)
• University Archives started archiving selected websites of the academic and business units of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of North Carolina General Administration, and student groups and organizations at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in January 2013. To see if websites for this department or related departments have been archived visit University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Harvested Websites (#40417).

The Department of Biostatistics is an academic department of the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It was founded in 1949 to provide statistical training, consultation, and research directed to the needs of medicine and public health. In 1953, the department established programs of instruction leading to the M.S.P.H. and Ph.D. degrees in biostatistics. The graduate curriculum was subsequently enlarged to include concentrations in genetics (1965, Ph.D. level), demography and population studies (1965, M.S.P.H. and PhD. levels), health services (1970, Ph.D. level), environmental biostatistics (1970, Ph.D. level), and biostatistical methods in mental health (1967, Ph.D. level). Specializations in cardiovascular diseases and data management were added later.

Professional training at the undergraduate level began in the fall of 1976 with the institution of the B.S.P.H. degree in biostatistics. Meanwhile, the graduate curriculum was restructured, allowing students either to choose the M.P.H. and Dr.P.H. programs, which focused on biostatistical applications in public health, or to opt for a more theoretical, research-oriented course of study leading to the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees. The M.S.P.H. program, which covered both theory and practice, was discontinued in the early 1980s.

Since the department's inception, its members have undertaken extensive research in the various fields listed above and have served frequently as consultants to researchers in other disciplines. The department also has a long record of providing statistical and data management services to cooperative studies, dating back to the cancer chemotherapy trials of the late 1950s and before. Beginning in 1971, it served as central patient registry and statistical analysis center for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Lipid Research Clinics Program, an international cooperative study of the relationship between lipids and cardiovascular disease. In 1983, it was designated as a World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Noncommunicable Disease Prevention and Control.

Individuals who have chaired the Department of Biostatistics are listed below.

The records in this group contain information on personnel, research, instruction, and administration in the Department of Biostatistics from its inception in 1949 to January of 1974. The annual reports provide succinct lists of faculty members, grants, enrollment, service and research projects, physical facilities, and publications beginning with the 1956-1957 academic year. Notes and memoranda for the School of Public Health catalogs document changes in personnel, course offerings, and curricula, while the faculty meeting minutes detail decisions on departmental activities and operations starting in the fall of 1964. The remaining files contain correspondence regarding the funding of interinstitutional travel by students and the creation of a Foundation for the School of Public Health during Bernard Greenberg's tenure as department chairman.