Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) in Civil and Environmental Engineering

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Civil and Environmental Engineering

Welcome to the University of Vermont Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Graduate Program website! At UVM, our graduate students work closely with outstanding faculty who are research active in many areas of the broad discipline of Civil and Environmental Engineering, including:

• Airborne Particle Characterization & Processes (Holmén)
• Chemical fate and transport (Holmén)
• Civil infrastructure materials and modeling (Dewoolkar, Hernandez)
• Contaminant Hydrology (Pinder, Rizzo)
• Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering (Dewoolkar, Ghazanfari)
• Groundwater modeling (Pinder, Rizzo)
• Hydrology (Bomblies, Pinder, Rizzo)
• Natural and Engineering Systems Modeling (Rizzo)
• Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering (Dewoolkar and Hernandez)
• Structural Health Monitoring and Diagnostics (Hernandez)
• Wireless sensor networks for health monitoring of subsurface geo-systems (Ghazanfari)
• Sustainable transportation systems (Aultman-Hall, Holmén, Lee)
• Sustainable energy infrastructure (Tan, Ghazanfari)
• Geo-energy systems (Ghazanfari)
• Heritage structure conservation (Dewoolkar, Tan)

You can read more about individual faculty on their individual web pages using the Faculty link in the Program Links right-hand sidebar. All of us are very approachable, so do not hesitate to contact us via email to inquire about our research activities and openings for new students in our research groups.

Nearly all of our ~ 30 graduate students are full-time students and fully supported by either faculty research grants or teaching assistantships. Students may also pursue the non-thesis option without financial support. CEE is a broad field and a number of our graduate students work collaboratively with other UVM faculty in, to name a few, the School of Natural Resources, College of Medicine, Geology, Mechanical, and Electrical Engineering, Community Development, and Applied Economics (CDAE). I encourage you to build your own plan for your graduate student career using as many of UVM's research and academic resources as possible.

Certificates of Graduate Study are available for graduate students wishing to pursue interdisciplinary research areas in some depth. Interested students should contact the coordinators of these programs which involve taking a set of courses focused on one particular theme. Graduate students must formally apply to the individual Certificate Program prior to the start of the semester in which the courses will count toward the Certificate.

The Ph.D. program provides an outstanding education in a small focused setting. The doctoral program focuses primarily on the environmental are and computational modeling and information technology applications in civil engineering.

The College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences (CEMS) is composed of a constellation of brilliant and vibrant departments and programs. Our interdisciplinary approach prepares graduates for leadership roles while cultivating a diverse community of scholars. It’s our mission to provide the State of Vermont an intellectual resource for technologically driven economic growth and to promote engineering, computer science, and mathematics as professions in service to humanity.

College Mission + Profile

CEMS is home to one school — The School of Engineering — and two departments — The Department of Computer Science and The Department of Mathematics and Statistics. CEMS faculty and students are actively engaged in on-campus transdisciplinary programs including Vermont Complex Systems Center, Vermont Advanced Computing Core (VACC), and the Integrative Graduate Education and Training (IGERT) program. Our statewide community outreach programs reach K-12 teachers and students and include The Governor’s Institute of Vermont and FIRST Robotics.

Welcome from Dean Luis Garcia

Welcome to the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences (CEMS) at UVM. You have chosen a field of study that will enable you to shape the future of our world as society faces ever-larger challenges, such as utilizing our limited resources more efficiently, reducing the human race footprint on the planet, and developing new and more powerful computing tools that allow us to solve problems faster and more efficiently. As a member of the CEMS community, you will learn skills that will help you develop into a top-notch STEM thinker and professional. CEMS is a close-knit community where students get to know each other and their professors. Our STEM-oriented school within a comprehensive university setting provides students the opportunity to take advantage of a holistic graduate and undergraduate experience. In addition to the degree programs we also offer innovative certificate programs which provide credentials that build an individual’s qualifications and support his or her desire to make career changes, advance within a field, or access a higher paying job. The cross-pollination of ideas is only possible in a setting like CEMS, where students have the opportunity to gain knowledge of supporting disciplines within and outside the college. Our aim is to provide you with a unique experience that allows you to maximize your individual potential while providing you with a world-class education and skill set. Again welcome to CEMS.