Environmental Engineering

Welcome to the Environmental Engineering graduate concentration at The Henry Samueli School of Engineering. This school-wide graduate program leads to an M.S. degree or Ph.D. degree in Engineering with a concentration in Environmental Engineering. Within the degree program students choose from three areas of emphasis: Water Quality, Water Resources, or Air Quality and Combustion. It also offers part-time study for an M.S. degree. Currently, there are 15 faculty members from three departments (CEE, ChEMS, and MAE) participating in this interdisciplinary program.

Environmental engineers with an interdisciplinary background are particularly sought to address the complex infrastructure needs of today’s society, where they must be able to communicate with teams of scientists and engineers from different disciplines. Environmental engineering graduates who meet this description can expect to remain in strong demand in the private and public employment sectors, and their range of career opportunities is highly diverse. Examples of career fields and activities include the development of new technologies to genetically engineer microorganisms for waste treatment, design of combustion and control processes that minimize pollutant emissions and maximize energy efficiency, resolution of complex pollutant transport processes in naturally heterogeneous systems, development of new physical-chemical treatment approaches, and characterization of pollutant transformation mechanisms in natural systems.

Areas of Interest
Curricular and research subjects of interest in Environmental Engineering include environmental air and water chemistry, environmental microbiology, combustion technologies, aerosol science, transport phenomena, reactor theory, unit operations and systems design, mathematical modeling, energy systems, soil physics, fluid mechanics, hydrology, and meteorology. Interdisciplinary research endeavors commonly bridge many of these different subjects and a current focus is maintained on new and emerging technologies. Curriculum objectives have also been set to maintain a balance between the depth and breadth of program scope for each student. Within this degree program students choose from three areas of emphasis: Water Quality, Water Resources, or Air Quality and Combustion.

Required Background
The interdisciplinary nature of the program allows students with a variety of backgrounds to undertake studies in this field. Students with a background in engineering—particularly chemical, civil, environmental, and mechanical engineering—as well as scientists from biology, chemistry, environmental science, and physics, are encouraged to participate.

Students admitted to the program are expected to have had rigorous undergraduate exposure to a number of relevant subject areas including air quality, environmental chemistry, fluid mechanics, microbial processes, and reactor theory and design. The degree to which each student meets the program’s background requirement is determined by participating faculty at the time of admission. Students with an insufficient background who are offered admission will be required to take a set of appropriate prerequisite courses. Prerequisite work typically involves at least two and frequently as many as five or six upper-division, undergraduate courses each of which must be completed with a final grade of B or better. Occasionally, lower-division work in chemistry, mathematics, or physics is required. The student’s specific prerequisite course work requirement, if any, is stated in the letter of admission.

The background requirement establishes a common foundation for graduate study in the program. Not all students are required to take prerequisite course work; those who are may do so following matriculation in the graduate program. In addition, M.S. students may use a limited amount of upper-division course work taken to meet the background requirement in partial fulfillment of graduate degree requirements.

Although this list is not exhaustive, commonly required prerequisite courses within each of the required background areas are as follows:

Air Quality: Engineering MAE110, MAE162, or MAE164
Environmental Chemistry: CEE162 or Earth System Science 102
Environmental Microbiology: CBEMS112 or CBEMS116/216
Fluid Mechanics: CEE170, CBEMS120A, or MAE130A
Reactor Theory and Design: CBEMS110

Admissions Information:
Use the following list as a guideline of documents needed for a complete application.
__________ Application
__________ Application Fee
__________ Statement of Purpose
__________ Official Copy of GRE
__________ Official Copy of TOEFL (International Applicants Only)
__________ Official Copy of Transcripts (Bachelors and Masters, if applicable)
__________ 3 letters of recommendation

Please send the above items to the following address:

University of California, Irvine
The Henry Samueli School of Engineering
Civil and Environmental Engineering Department
ATTN: Graduate Coordinator
4130 Engineering Gateway
Irvine, CA 92697-2175

Degree Requirements:

Visit the UCI General Catalogue for more course and degree information about the Environmental Engineering Concentration.

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