The Minority International Research Training Program at the University of Pittsburgh is a collaborative effort involving the Department of Epidemiology, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh and the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the University of the West Indies (Barbados) . Funding for the program is provided by the Fogarty International Center at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C.

The under-representation of minorities in biomedical and public health research has had considerable impact on minority communities in the United States and developing populations around the world. Health experts maintain that the excess morbidity and mortality from chronic diseases in these communities is partly due to a shortage of trained health professionals who can work with a variety of ethnic groups, and in different sociocultural environments. Thus, there is a need for additional training and research opportunities which will prepare students to be effective researchers and health practitioners in the 21st century.

The Minority International Research Training Program at the University of Pittsburgh was developed to help address this need.

Our Mission

The Minority International Research Training Program is designed to:

• Provide an 8 to 12-week research experience in the Caribbean during June, July and August for minority junior and senior undergraduate students who have an interest in pursuing advanced degrees and careers in biomedical research
• Provide pre-doctoral students with opportunities in international chronic disease research to collect data toward a dissertation thesis
• Recruit promising minority students into diabetes and other chronic disease training programs at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health
• Foster a greater degree of cooperation between the University of Pittsburgh and collaborators at the foreign sites and other domestic institutions affiliated with the program

Contact Information

General Information:

Email:PittMIRT@netscape.net

Tel:412-624-2961

Fax:412-624-2961

512 Parran Hall

130 DeSoto Street

Pittsburgh, PA 15261

Program Director

Dr. Eugene S. Tull, Dr.PH, MT

Assistant Professor

Department of Epidemiology

Graduate School of Public Health

University of Pittsburgh

412-624-2961

Send mail to PittMIRT@netscape.net with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: 07/12/04