Our PhD students participate in education and research that strives to advance the engineering science fundamentals of the civil and environmental engineering disciplines. Doctoral candidates develop an individualized program of study in one of our three major focus areas: 

• Advanced Infrastructure Systems (AIS)
• Environmental Engineering, Sustainability, and Science (EESS)
• Mechanics, Materials and Computing (MMC)

We strive to advance the state-of-knowledge and art in how engineering problems are formulated, interpreted and solved through our research.

We are highly interdisciplinary, often approaching problems with teams of faculty and students bringing different skills, insights and methods from different disciplines. We present our results at conferences, publish in high quality journals, and communicate our results to decision makers and the public through various government and private committees, councils and advisory boards.

Direct Entry PhD 

If you are interested in a career in research and have graduated with a degree in engineering or a related technical field from an accredited insitituion you can apply as a direct entry PhD student. 

Direct entry students must complete the requirements for the MS degree before beginning PhD studies but will not have to apply to the PhD program upon completion of their MS studies.

Direct entry students are required to complete successfully the doctoral qualifying examination.