Civil Engineering Major, PhD

Concentrations (Required)

Knoxville Campus

All applicants to the degree programs must submit scores from the General Graduate Record Examination (GRE).

72 graduate credit hours beyond the bachelor’s degree (excludes credit hours for the Master’s thesis)

18 credit hours of graduate courses in Civil Engineering (CE) or Environmental Engineering (ENVE), exclusive of thesis or dissertation credit.
A minimum of 18 graduate credit hours Civil Engineering (CE), Environmental Engineering (ENVE), or related scientific and engineering fields such as Chemistry (CHEM), Mathematics (MATH), Microbiology (MICR), Physics (PHYS), and other engineering fields, subject to approval by the student’s faculty committee.
- A minimum of 6 graduate credit hours of Mathematics (MATH) will be required beyond the civil engineering undergraduate requirements.
At least 6 credit hours of the above coursework must be at the 600-level.

Concentration Specific Courses. Students select from among those listed and others as chosen in consultation with the major professor and guidance committee.
At the discretion of the student’s dissertation committee and depending on the student’s background, more than 36 credit hours of graduate courses may be required.
A maximum of 24 credit hours from the master’s degree may be used to satisfy the course requirements for the PhD.

Knowledge Breadth Curriculum (3 credit hours): select one course from the following areas. Specific courses are selected in consultation with the major professor and guidance committee.
- Political, social, legal, ethical, and security issues related to energy (e.g., POLS, PHYS, ESE)
- Entrepreneurship, leadership, and management (e.g., IE, ME, MGT, SES)
- Additional courses may be selected in consultation with the Bredesen Center’s Director or major professor
Knowledge Specialization Curriculum (6 credit hours): choose two courses from participating department as defined in the Bredesen Center Graduate Student Handbook. Specific courses are selected in consultation with the major professor and guidance committee.
- Bioenergy and biofuels (e.g., EEB, MICR, BCMB, CBE, LFSC, PLSC)
- Cross-cutting energy sciences (e.g., MICR, ECE, CHEM, PHYS, MATH, STAT)
- Distributed energy and grid management (e.g., ECE)
- Energy conversion and storage (e.g., CBE, CHEM, ME MSE, PHYS)
- Energy materials (e.g., MSE, PHYS)
- Environmental and climate sciences related to energy (e.g., GEOL, MICR, BCMB, EEB, ESS, FORS, GEOL, LFSC, MICR, PLSC, ENVE, FWF)
- Nuclear energy (e.g., NE, CHEM, ME, PHYS)
- Renewable energy (e.g., MATH, CBE, ENVE, ME, STAT)
- Transportation sciences (e.g., CBE, CE, ECE, ME)

One foreign language if the student’s faculty committee feels that a reading knowledge of a foreign language is crucial to the student’s research efforts.
Upon completion of at least one-half of all coursework, each student must pass a comprehensive examination.
After completion of the dissertation, prior to graduation, each student must pass a dissertation defense examination administered by a faculty committee.