In 2002, Tufts University created an interdisciplinary doctoral program to train students to work with a global view toward assuring water security for the protection of health, the environment, and human livelihoods. The program is called Water: Systems, Science, and Society (WSSS), and includes six schools of the university: Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, Nutrition, Arts and Sciences, Engineering, and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. WSSS is designed to assure that students acquire interdisciplinary knowledge and approaches, even as they develop a specialization. With this application we propose to support students in WSSS with a concentration in Water and Health. Problems of water needs, use, and quality are pervasive throughout the world as well as the US, and are considered important enough by the National Institutes of Health to be mentioned specifically within the goals of Healthy People 2010. The Water and Health training program will support both HP 2010 goals and the New Roadmap goals of creating a new kind of interdisciplinary professional. Integrated, interdisciplinary analysis is necessary to understand and manage complex water related problems. Our vision is to educate professionals skilled in health-related disciplines who can use multiple disciplinary perspectives and tools. Water and Health graduates will be able to respond to the interdisciplinary, integrated water-related research challenges. Engineers will understand the principles of Public Health. Nutrition students will understand the basics of hydrology. Policy students will understand the fundamentals of epidemiology. These new professionals will be able to participate in the analysis of water problems and work to develop solutions jointly with colleagues from many specialties, using the rigorous methods and tools of the relevant disciplines.
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