Middle School
Worksheets
Who or What Is an Epidemiologist?
Do you like to solve mysteries? Would you feel satisfied by solving disease mysteries? Have you ever thought that there might be such a thing? Well, there is. An epidemiologist is a disease detective.
First and foremost, epidemiologists are scientists. In general, they study lots of diseases and patterns of diseases. They become especially involved in epidemics, or unusual disease outbreaks. Through their studies, they try to figure out what causes disease, what risk factors to diseases are, and how to prevent or control disease.
Epidemiologists need to be intelligent. They need to study lots of science and math. Most need doctoral degrees, and some are actually medical doctors with master's degrees in epidemiology.
