Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering

Aerospace Engineering's BioServe Space Technologies has designed, built, and flown 50+ payloads on 40+ spaceflight missions on space shuttles, the International Space Station, and Russian and commercial spacecraft. Students at the NASA-sponsored Colorado Space Grant Consortium, headquartered in engineering's Discovery Learning Center, have designed, built, and flown three space shuttle payloads, two orbiting satellites, 10 sounding rocket payloads, and hundreds of balloon payloads.

The doctoral (Ph.D.) programs in engineering and applied sciences are designed for individuals looking to pursue innovation and research. Graduate students in these programs spend 4-6 years studying and applying existing knowledge to explore new research areas. You’ll gain experience in carrying out detailed research, reporting data, and learning from mistakes to design new solutions or new ways of researching. Doctoral students may take on teaching duties and research roles in labs alongside faculty and other graduate students working on similar projects. Upon completing the degree, PhDs are ready to continue research in academia or industry where their knowledge and skillsets are highly valued in research and development environments. Finally, some PhDs use their research to launch entrepreneurial endeavors to blend their academic approach to building and creating products that address real-world challenges.

We're the top-ranked engineering school in Colorado and the entire Rocky Mountain Region, with 56-degree programs in 18 areas of study. Our engineers are making groundbreaking advances in energy, communications, materials, structures, computers, medicine, and space exploration – creating the exciting technology that makes all of our lives better every day.

As one of only 36 U.S. public research institutions in the Association of American Universities (AAU), the University of Colorado Boulder is all about realizing the positive impacts of new knowledge. From offering dozens of exciting programs in a range of academic fields, to serving as one of the world’s most dynamic research and innovation hubs, to working closely through hundreds of public outreach efforts with communities across Colorado and the world, we take pride in helping our students, faculty, staff, and partners turn new ideas into productive outcomes that change lives.