Departmental Unit № 1
Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences (GPS) / Environmental Science and Engineering (ESE)
PhD in Environmental Science and Engineering / Geology
100% Full Funding Guaranteed (5 Years)
Funding Package: Full tuition scholarship + 12-month stipend (~$45,000/yr) + health insurance covered for all PhD students.
Fall Priority Deadline: December 15
GRE Policy: Not required / Waived
English Minimums: TOEFL iBT 100 minimum or IELTS 7.5
MS in Environmental Science and Engineering (Non-terminal)
N/A
Funding Reality: Caltech admits students only for the PhD program; master's degree is earned en route.
Application Deadline: N/A
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 (3 Profiles)
Prof. Christian Frankenberg
Chandler Family Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering; JPL Senior Research Scientist
In Plain Terms · What This Scholar Does:
He develops space satellite cameras with NASA that capture the faint glowing light emitted by living plants, revealing global crop water stress and planetary transpiration from orbit.
Core Research Topics: Satellite remote sensing, global carbon and hydrological cycles, solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF), atmospheric spectroscopy, water isotopes.
Recent 2024–2026 Works & Grants: Joint appointment with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Science team member for NASA's OCO-2, OCO-3, and EMIT space missions. Developing next-generation imaging spectrometers to map global photosynthesis and plant transpiration from orbit.
Laboratory Instruments & Methods: Imaging spectrometers, airborne remote sensing (AVIRIS-NG), radiative transfer inversion algorithms, Python data science stack.
Recruiting Context: Joint Caltech/JPL lab with premier satellite remote sensing access.
Candidate Match:
Remote SensingHydrologyGISPython
Tailored Cold-Email Opening Hook:
"Referencing satellite imaging spectroscopy of the global water cycle, expressing interest in his group's work utilizing NASA Earth-observing satellite datasets."
Prof. Michael P. Lamb
Professor of Geology
In Plain Terms · What This Scholar Does:
He builds giant artificial rivers in laboratory flumes and travels to rushing mountain torrents to study the destructive power of floods, gravel movement, and river avulsions.
Core Research Topics: River mechanics, flood geomorphology, sediment transport, landscape evolution, river delta drowning, fluvial physics.
Recent 2024–2026 Works & Grants: Directs the Caltech River Dynamics and Surface Processes Lab. Combines large-scale flume water tanks, field experiments, and drone photogrammetry to understand how violent floodwaters move gravel and re-route rivers.
Laboratory Instruments & Methods: Flume hydraulic experiments, acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCP), drone photogrammetry, sediment transport physics, GIS terrain modeling.
Recruiting Context: Actively mentors graduate students in surface hydrology and fluvial geomorphology.
Candidate Match:
Flood ModelingHydrologyGISGeomorphology
Tailored Cold-Email Opening Hook:
"Discussing river morphodynamics, sediment bedload transport during severe flood pulses, and spatial analysis of river channels."
Prof. Xiaojing (Ruby) Fu
Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Civil Engineering
In Plain Terms · What This Scholar Does:
She studies how water trickles through sponges, soil, and snowpacks, discovering how melting alpine snow supplies drinking water to millions of people downstream.
Core Research Topics: Subsurface hydrology, porous media flow, snowpack hydrology, multiphase environmental fluid dynamics, alpine water resources.
Recent 2024–2026 Works & Grants: Tenure-track Assistant Professor! Directs the Fu Lab. Studies the physics of fluid transport through complex porous media—from melting snowpack layers releasing meltwater into mountain streams, to underground groundwater aquifers.
Laboratory Instruments & Methods: Multiphase fluid modeling, microfluidic experiments, high-speed optical imaging, numerical simulation codes.
Recruiting Context: Tenure-track Assistant Professor! Has fresh funding and high demand for hardworking graduate students.
Candidate Match:
HydrologyEnvironmental ModelingLab Testing
Tailored Cold-Email Opening Hook:
"Expressing keen interest in multiphase flow physics and subsurface snowpack hydrology, connecting to your environmental testing and hydrological studies."