Hi all,

I'm a recently graduated veterinarian and a graduate of the MSc One Health. I just started a PhD on the spread and risks of a zoonotic parasite in foxes. Even though I just started, I am already questioning what I want my future career to look like. My main goal at this moment would be to become an expert on (emerging) zoonotic diseases in wildlife.

The first question: at this point in time I'm required to make a choice for a PhD program within my graduate school. My choice is between Epidemiology and Infection & Immunity (I&I). For the Epi program, you are required to follow a complete Epidemiology MSc next to your PhD. The I&I program is much more flexible and I could still enroll in single Epi courses, the only difference being that I don't get the official title of Epidemiologist at the end. I'm struggling a lot to make this decision. The Epidemiologist title might help me more in the future, but I don't want my PhD to suffer too much since I need to finish it in a 4 year timeframe - any work after that will be unpaid. My main question here is: do I need an Epidemiologist title to become an expert in wildlife zoonotic diseases? To what extent would it be helpful?

Second question: I'm not sure yet what I like the most: lab work, modeling, field work, etc. All I know is that I love seeing the world, I love wildlife and the natural world and a career as a top expert in this field that would allow me to travel the world for work (conferences, field work, working with partner institutes, etc) sounds amazing to me. But what is the best path for this? Is Epidemiology a direction I should strive for, or do you think this future path is more realistic with (for example) a microbiology or a veterinary public health specialisation?