Doctor of Philosophy in Nuclear Engineering

The doctoral degree requires students to complete 64 hours with a master’s degree, and students without a master’s degree will need to complete the 96-hour degree plan. A doctoral candidate together with his or her graduate committee must develop a degree plan that upon completion will demonstrate mastery of advanced knowledge and skills in the chosen area of emphasis. The chosen area of emphasis can be in any of the five research areas: 

• Computational methods development
• Medical physics, radiation biology and  health physics
• Nuclear fuel cycles and materials
• Nuclear power engineering
• Nuclear security and nonproliferation

View Current Program Requirements

Students must provide justification for listing 1- or 2-hour courses on their doctoral degree plan. Also, undergraduate courses cannot be listed as a part of the degree plan. Students must pass the department’s qualifying examination to continue in the program as a doctoral candidate. Visit our Qualifying Exam page for more information.

PhD students will have to have at least one publication that is either published or with the editor before scheduling their final exam. Reported publication needs to be deemed relevant by faculty advisor.

Notes:

1. Nuclear engineering graduate courses that were not included on the student's master's degree plan.
2. Graduate courses from outside the department and are typically in a science or engineering subject area.
3. The balance among nuclear engineering courses, supporting course work, and NUEN 691 research hours is to the discretion of the student's graduate committee. NUEN and supporting course work does not include any 684, 685, 681 or 691 credit hours.