The Environmental Engineering PhD program focuses on pollution control, pollution prevention, and the correction of pollution effects on natural and man-made environments preparing students for careers in environmental engineering with consulting firms; with industry; within federal, state, and local governments; and/or in higher education.
Areas of study include drinking water treatment, astute treatment, solid and hazardous waste management, atmospheric pollution control and modeling, environmental water resources, and stormwater management. The program's mission is to prepare students for careers in environmental engineering with consulting firms; with industry; within federal, state, and local governments; and/or in higher education.
The program offers an intensive, individually tailored research program suitable for the development of an academic or similar research-oriented career. Graduates of the program will have technical knowledge in critical areas of environmental engineering, critical thinking skills, formed and maintained partnerships with industry, government agencies, and professional organizations, and have developed an awareness of the changing environmental needs of society and the global environment.
Total Credit Hours Required: 72 Credit Hours Minimum beyond the Bachelor's Degree 42 Credit Hours Minimum beyond the Master's Degree
This program has potential ties to professional licensure or certification in the field. For more information on how this program may prepare you in that regard, please view the licensure disclosure for the Environmental Engineering PhD program.
Program Prerequisites
A bachelor's and/or master's degree in Environmental Engineering or a closely related discipline.
Calculus and Differential Equations should ideally be passed prior to applying to our Graduate Programs. However, recruiting faculty can request that this requirement be waived.
- MAC 2311 Calculus with Analytical Geometry 1
- MAC 2312 Calculus with Analytical Geometry 2
- MAC 2313 Calculus with Analytical Geometry 3
- MAP 2302 Ordinary Differential Equations 1
Application Requirements
Financial Information
Graduate students may receive financial assistance through fellowships, assistantships, tuition support, or loans. For more information, see the College of Graduate Studies Funding website, which describes the types of financial assistance available at UCF and provides general guidance in planning your graduate finances. The Financial Information section of the Graduate Catalog is another key resource.
Fellowship Information
Fellowships are awarded based on academic merit to highly qualified students. They are paid to students through the Office of Student Financial Assistance, based on instructions provided by the College of Graduate Studies. Fellowships are given to support a student's graduate study and do not have a work obligation. For more information, see UCF Graduate Fellowships, which includes descriptions of university fellowships and what you should do to be considered for a fellowship.
The Environmental Engineering PhD program is research oriented and requires a minimum of 72 credit hours beyond the bachelor's degree. Thirty of the 72 credit hours can be met with either a nonthesis or thesis MS in Environmental Engineering. This leaves 42 credit hours of which 18 credit hours must be Dissertation and a minimum of 15 credit hours must be formal course work. A maximum of 9 credit hours of Doctoral Research can be used in the doctoral program, which could be replaced by additional formal coursework.
For students not having an MS degree who directly enter the PhD program (BS to PhD), there will be a minimum of 45 credit hours formal coursework (i.e., 30 credit hours identical to the coursework for a nonthesis MS in Environmental Engineering plus a minimum of 15 credit hours course work past the MS). However, unlike MS students, BS to PhD students will be required to take only 4 of the 5 required courses from the nonthesis MS in Environmental Engineering requirements. In addition, these students can enroll for Doctoral Research credit hours during or after their first semester in the program. The 27 credit hours required in addition to the 45 credit hours coursework will be 18 credit hours in Dissertation Research, and a maximum of 9 credit hours in Doctoral Research. Up to 9 credit hours of Doctoral Research can be replaced by additional formal coursework subject to the approval of the PhD adviser and the advisory committee.
For both MS to PhD and BS to PhD students, the program of study must be developed with an advisory committee and meet with departmental approval at the beginning of the PhD program, at which time transfer credit will be evaluated on a course-by-course basis.
Masters Along the Way
Students not having an MS degree can get an MS degree “along-the-way”. The MS degree can be thesis or non-thesis, and can be for any of the Environmental MS programs (i.e. MS Environmental Engineering, or the MS Environmental, MS Environmental Sciences Track). For this to take place the student must take all the required courses (core courses) in the MS Track that is chosen. Electives can be substituted (e.g. electives inside or outside of the department or outside engineering) with the approval of the academic advisor. For thesis degrees 6 hours of thesis research are required. The student must then successfully pass both a written and oral thesis defense, as other thesis students do. For a non-thesis degree completion of 10 courses is required, at least one of which provides an independent learning experience, and a portfolio/exam. The course independent learning requirement is fulfilled in the MS required course ENV 6016 and can be fulfilled by the elective course ENV 6126 Design of Air Pollution Controls (3 credit hours) and the elective course ENV 6106 Theory and Practice of Atmospheric Dispersion Modeling (3 credit hours).
Equipment Fee
Full-time students in the Environmental Engineering PhD program pay $16 per semester for equipment used in the laboratories. Part-time students pay $8 per semester.
Independent Learning
The Independent Learning Requirement for the PhD is met by successful completion of the student's candidacy and dissertation defense examinations.
