The Milken Institute School of Public Health will split The Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology into two beginning this fall, according to a public health school release Monday.

Public health school officials established the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics and the Department of Epidemiology. The Computational Biology Institute will be housed in the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, the release states.

Scott Evans, the director of the Biostatistics Center, will chair the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics. Alan Greenberg, former chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, will lead the Department of Epidemiology, according to the release.

“These critical sciences are foundational for public health research and decision-making and essential to the education of the next generation of leaders in public health and medicine,” Evans said in the release.

Public health school Dean Lynn Goldman said the new departments will attract “world class” students and researchers to the school, and the additions reflect GW’s effort to bolster STEM disciplines.

“The Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Department elevates our school’s commitment to the quantitative sciences and support the University-wide focus on science, technology, engineering and math,” Goldman said in the release.