Infectious Disease Biology (Minor)
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Program Description
Infectious diseases represent an increasing threat to public health, agricultural productivity, and global biodiversity.
Recent years have seen an unprecedented rise in the incidence and severity of infectious diseases in human, plant, and animal populations across nearly all of the world’s ecosystems. This intensification of diseases around the world is linked to human activity, which has brought about habitat transformation, climate change, biological invasions, environmental contamination, and ensuing losses of biodiversity.
Global disease dynamics have long-lasting economic, social, and global health impacts. It is more important than ever for students pursuing careers in biomedical, veterinary, medical, public health, natural resources and agricultural fields to appreciate the biology of the host-microbe and environmental interactions that give rise to infectious disease. Famous historical examples of significant impacts of infectious diseases include the "black death" (bubonic plague), the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, and the Irish potato famine. More recently, infectious diseases have resulted in amphibian declines, decimation of bats from white nose disease of bats, and forest declines, plus the emergence of Ebola virus disease, SARS, MERS, and West Nile virus in birds and humans, and the chronic challenge of food-borne illnesses.
The Infectious Disease Biology Minor provides students with a broad perspective on health and disease, the dynamic nature of host-associated microbes, an in-depth understanding of the origins and dynamics of infectious diseases, and contemporary thought about the nature of health, disease, and disease management.
Academic Standards
Program Policies
To satisfy the requirements of the Infectious Disease Biology Minor, students must successfully complete one foundation course listed below (3 credits) plus a minimum of 12 additional credits at the 2000-level and higher, with at least one course selected from each of the lists (A, B, and C) below, for a minimum requirement of 15 credits. Credit for courses other than those listed below require the approval of the minor advisor. Special topic courses, independent study, seminar courses, and courses without regular instruction cannot be counted toward the credit requirement without prior written approval of the minor advisor.
All courses must be taken for a letter grade and students must receive a grade of “C” or better for the course to count toward the minor. Any undergraduate student at Cornell may enroll in the minor. However, this minor may especially complement academic programs of students majoring in Animal Sciences, Biological Sciences, Biology & Society, Environmental Science and Sustainability, Human Biology, Health and Society, Natural Resources, or Plant Sciences.