About the Department

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Penn State (CEE) is a welcoming and innovative community of faculty, staff, and students dedicated to advancing the quality of life for all through sustainable and resilient civil infrastructure systems. Our mission is to address complex and evolving societal needs in both the natural and built environments by delivering an outstanding education, conducting impactful research, and providing inspirational service to society and our profession.

CEE is a dynamic hub of creativity and innovation composed of 36 faculty members, 16 staff members, more than 450 undergraduate students, and more than 120 graduate students and postdocs. Our degree programs are consistently ranked among the nation’s best by U.S. News & World Report, placing in the top 15 and top 25 at the undergraduate and graduate levels, respectively. The department offers a wide array of courses across the breadth of civil and environmental engineering, including construction engineering and management, environmental engineering, geotechnical engineering, infrastructure materials, structural engineering and mechanics, transportation engineering, and water resources engineering. A list of courses can be found here.

CEE faculty and students lead pioneering research in five key areas: Safe and equitable transportation systems, Sustainable solutions for water, Infrastructure resilience and adaptation, Decarbonization of the built environment, and AI for sustainability. The department is home to outstanding faculty members, including 7 NSF CAREER Award recipients and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. In fall 2024, CEE moved to the new, LEED certified, Engineering Collaborative Research and Education (ECoRE) building, featuring 9 active-learning classrooms and 51,000 square feet in support of research with state-of-the-art laboratories.