#40123

                         THE RECORDS OF
                 THE DEPARTMENT OF BIOSTATISTICS

                             in the

             University Archives and Records Service
           University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
                    Wilson Library, CB# 3926
                   Chapel Hill, North Carolina
                           27514-8890

                            May 1993

     The Department of Biostatistics at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill 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
are currently available as well. 

     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.

     The Department of Biostatistics is located in
McGavran-Greenberg Hall, home of the School of Public Health of
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  Professor Barry
H. Margolin is the current department chairman, having succeeded
James E. Grizzle (1972-1987) and Bernard G. Greenberg
(1949-1972), first chairman and department founder.  

     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.

     For more archival material on the Department of
Biostatistics, see Subgroup 9 of the Records of the Dean of the
School of Public Health in the University Archives; see also
Subgroup 7, Series 2, of the Records of the Vice Chancellor for
Health Affairs. 

     Additional secondary material may be found in The Body
Politic, School of Public Health, UNC-CH, Chapel Hill, vols. 9:1
(Sept. 1981), 9:2 (Feb. 1982), 9:3 (Jun. 1982), 10:1 (Nov. 1982),
10:2 (May 1983), 11:2 (Aug. 1984), 13:1 (Mar. 1986), and 17:1
(Winter 1990); in The Daily Tarheel, 27 Aug. 1976, p. 7; and in
Robert Rodgers Korstad, Dreaming of a Time:  The School of Public
Health, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
1939-1989, Chapel Hill, 1990.  These works are available in the
North Carolina Collection.

     Records of the Department of Biostatistics in the University
Archives are arranged as follows:

Box 1:
     History of the Department (2 pages), Jan. 9, 1974
     Annual Reports, Apr. 1957-May 1973
     Departmental Descriptions for School of Public Health
          Catalogs, Oct. 1949-1969
     Faculty Meeting Minutes, Sep. 1964-Jan. 1970
     Interinstitutional Travel (Student) for Course
          Registration, Sept. 1970-Oct. 1972
     School of Public Health Foundation, June 1966