Departmental Unit № 1
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering
100% Full Funding Guaranteed (5 Years)
Funding Package: Full tuition waiver + 12-month stipend (~$45,000–$47,000/yr) + comprehensive health insurance covered via Research Assistantships (RA) or Teaching Assistantships (TA).
Fall Priority Deadline: December 15 (Fall Admission)
GRE Policy: Not required / Waived
English Minimums: IELTS minimum 7.0 or TOEFL iBT minimum 100
Master of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering (MS CEE)
Conditional / Funded via Faculty Research Grant
Funding Reality: Research-thesis MS students receive full tuition and stipend if hired directly onto a professor's research grant (RA). Coursework-only MEng is self-funded.
Application Deadline: December 15
Admissions Advisory: If full funding is required and MS is self-funded, students are strongly advised to apply directly to the PhD track.
Vetted Matched Scholars (5 Profiles)
Prof. Dara Entekhabi
Bacardi and Stockholm Water Foundations Professor
In Plain Terms · What This Scholar Does:
He uses NASA satellites to scan the Earth's soil moisture from space, predicting droughts and understanding how drying soil triggers heatwaves and shifts the global water cycle.
Core Research Topics: Satellite remote sensing, soil moisture dynamics, land-atmosphere interactions, agricultural drought transitions, Earth observation data assimilation.
Recent 2024–2026 Works & Grants: Science Team Lead for NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite. Recent papers include: 'Meteorological to Agricultural Drought Transitions Compounded by Heat Waves' (Water Resources Research, 2026) and 'A global dataset of remote sensing-based soil critical point and permanent wilting point' (Scientific Data, 2025).
Laboratory Instruments & Methods: Microwave satellite data (L-band radar & radiometry), NASA SMAP products, radiative transfer models, land-surface energy balance modeling, Python/MATLAB spatial scripting.
Recruiting Context: Actively leads NASA and NSF funded projects. Highly values students with background in remote sensing imagery, GIS spatial workflows, and spatial hydrological modeling.
Candidate Match:
Remote SensingHydrologyGISPython Scripting
Tailored Cold-Email Opening Hook:
"Referencing his 2026 Water Resources Research paper on remote sensing-based drought transitions, connecting it with your hands-on experience in satellite image analysis and hydrological modeling in GIS."
Prof. Elfatih Eltahir
H. M. King Bhumibol Professor of Hydrology and Climate
In Plain Terms · What This Scholar Does:
He studies how global warming alters extreme storms, monsoon flooding, and severe droughts, developing early warning maps so vulnerable populations can prepare for extreme water disasters.
Core Research Topics: Hydrology, hydroclimatology, regional climate modeling, extreme floods, water resources vulnerability, climate adaptation early warning systems.
Recent 2024–2026 Works & Grants: Directs the MIT CREWSnet (Climate Resilience Early Warning System Network). Recent publications include: 'A Theory on Regional Impacts of Global Warming' (Climate Dynamics, 2026) and research on transboundary river flood/drought risk in the Nile and regional heatwave/flood projections in South Asia.
Laboratory Instruments & Methods: High-resolution regional climate models (RegCM), hydrological watershed simulations, extreme value statistics, GIS-based spatial flood risk mapping.
Recruiting Context: Supervises funded graduate researchers on flood resilience, rainfall modeling, and climate-hydrology interactions.
Candidate Match:
HydrologyFlood ModelingGISClimate Hazards
Tailored Cold-Email Opening Hook:
"Highlighting your environmental geography and flood modeling interests, citing his CREWSnet initiatives and 2026 Climate Dynamics work on regional hydroclimatic extremes."
Prof. Haruko Murakami Wainwright
Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
In Plain Terms · What This Scholar Does:
She combines satellite and drone photos with AI algorithms to create high-resolution maps showing how water, nutrients, and pollutants flow across entire river basins and landscapes.
Core Research Topics: Environmental informatics, GeoAI, watershed science, multiscale remote sensing (satellites + drones + airborne), bayesian geostatistics, environmental contamination monitoring.
Recent 2024–2026 Works & Grants: Leads the Environmental Informatics Group at MIT. Directs multi-sensor observation campaigns combining drone hyperspectral imagery, satellite observations, and machine learning to map watershed soil and water quality dynamics across watersheds.
Laboratory Instruments & Methods: Machine learning / GeoAI, Bayesian inverse modeling, UAV/Drone remote sensing, satellite Earth observation, Python geospatial stack (GeoPandas, rasterio, scikit-learn).
Recruiting Context: Tenure-track group with strong funding. Especially seeks graduate students with practical GIS/remote sensing and Python programming skills.
Candidate Match:
GeoAIRemote SensingGISWatershed SciencePython
Tailored Cold-Email Opening Hook:
"Pointing to her work in fusing drone and satellite remote sensing with GeoAI for watershed monitoring, and explaining how your GIS and programming background fits her lab's informatics pipeline."
Prof. Desirée Plata
Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
In Plain Terms · What This Scholar Does:
She designs laboratory experiments to detect toxic chemical pollutants in water and soil, discovering where contaminants go and inventing chemical methods to destroy them.
Core Research Topics: Environmental chemistry, organic chemical contaminants, pollutant fate and transport, analytical wet-lab instrumentation, water treatment technology.
Recent 2024–2026 Works & Grants: Directs Plata Lab. Developing innovative catalytic systems and high-precision chemical extraction workflows to detect and eliminate trace industrial pollutants and greenhouse gases in contaminated waterways and soil systems.
Laboratory Instruments & Methods: Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS), High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), spectrometry, chemical titration, analytical wet-lab water analysis.
Recruiting Context: Runs a large wet laboratory. Very interested in students who have hands-on wet-lab testing experience (water quality titration, spectrometry, chemical extraction).
Candidate Match:
Environmental PollutionLab Water TestingWater QualityEnvironmental Chemistry
Tailored Cold-Email Opening Hook:
"Connecting your BSc laboratory training in water contamination testing and chemical analytical procedures directly with her research on pollutant transport and remediation."
Prof. Charles F. Harvey
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
In Plain Terms · What This Scholar Does:
He solves major environmental health disasters like toxic arsenic poisoning in groundwater drinking wells, and studies how draining tropical wetlands alters regional hydrology and climate.
Core Research Topics: Hydrogeology, groundwater hydrology, groundwater arsenic and chemical pollution, wetland and tropical peatland hydrology, subsurface contaminant migration.
Recent 2024–2026 Works & Grants: Pioneering investigations into groundwater arsenic poisoning in South and Southeast Asia; large-scale hydrological and carbon dynamics of tropical peat swamp forests in Southeast Asia.
Laboratory Instruments & Methods: Field hydrogeological testing, groundwater flow simulations, chemical water sampling, GIS spatial groundwater contamination mapping.
Recruiting Context: Active international research collaborations in environmental pollution and groundwater hydrology.
Candidate Match:
HydrologyEnvironmental PollutionGISLab Water Testing
Tailored Cold-Email Opening Hook:
"Highlighting your interest in groundwater pollution dynamics and spatial mapping of water contaminants in vulnerable river basins."
Departmental Unit № 2
Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS)
PhD in Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences
100% Full Funding Guaranteed (5 Years)
Funding Package: Full 12-month stipend (~$46,000/yr), complete tuition waiver, and health coverage for all admitted students.
Fall Priority Deadline: December 1
GRE Policy: Not accepted / Blind review
English Minimums: IELTS 7.0 or TOEFL iBT 100
SM in Earth and Planetary Sciences
Research Track Funded
Funding Reality: Admitted MS thesis students supported via research grants or departmental assistantships.
Application Deadline: December 1
Admissions Advisory: If full funding is required and MS is self-funded, students are strongly advised to apply directly to the PhD track.
Vetted Matched Scholars (1 Profiles)
Prof. J. Taylor Perron
Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences
In Plain Terms · What This Scholar Does:
He investigates how flowing water and floods carve rivers and reshape entire landscapes over time, using satellite 3D laser maps (LiDAR) and terrain modeling.
Core Research Topics: Fluvial geomorphology, river network branching, landscape evolution, high-resolution topographic data (DEMs/LiDAR), flood channel formation.
Recent 2024–2026 Works & Grants: Directs the Perron Geomorphology Lab. Studies the physical mechanisms that carve river networks, valleys, and coastal landforms on Earth and other planetary surfaces using satellite elevation datasets and physical simulations.
Laboratory Instruments & Methods: Digital Elevation Model (DEM) topographic analysis, airborne LiDAR, GIS spatial statistics, mathematical landscape evolution models, Python scripts.
Recruiting Context: Welcomes students with strong spatial analysis, GIS, and physical geography backgrounds who enjoy analyzing topographic elevation models and river channels.
Candidate Match:
GISRemote SensingHydrologyFlood Geomorphology
Tailored Cold-Email Opening Hook:
"Discussing your experience in GIS terrain analysis and spatial hydrology applied to river channel morphodynamics and landscape drainage networks."