The University of the District Columbia (UDC) is seeking PhD and MSc level students to be appointed as a Research Assistants/Teaching Assistants to conduct environmental engineering research under the leadership of Dr. Hossain Azam in the Department of Civil Engineering at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), beginning from Spring, 2024. Several PhD and MSc level research opportunities are available. Women or students of minority background are encouraged to apply but students of all background will be considered. You must be a US Citizen or Green Card holder to be eligible to apply for Spring, 2025.
The PhD student (s) will work on different aspects of a water-energy-food-climate nexus or a multidisciplinary climate change research project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to investigate the application of new methodologies such as Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA), City-based Optimization Model for Energy Technologies (COMET) to estimate and mitigate the impacts of climate change on critical infrastructure systems or water-energy-food-climate nexus systems. Students with working experience in water-energy-food-climate nexus projects or climate change analysis or climate change impact assessment will be given priority but it is not a requirement.
MSc student (s) are expected to work on resources/energy recovery from wastewater, life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA), solar energy for agriculture (agrovoltaics), per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) treatment, aquaponics & hydroponics systems and recoverable in-situ adsorbents for water and air contaminants with project funding from USDA, NASA, NSF, DC Water. Having U.S. Citizenship or Green Card is encouraged but not required for MSc admission.
Students will work closely with different faculty members and scientists of different departments, universities and industries in collaboration with UDC’s Environmental Quality Testing Laboratory (EQTL) under the leadership of Dr. Azam. Candidates are required to hold a B.S. degree in civil eng., environmental eng., mechanical eng., agricultural & biological eng., environmental science, computer science, or related fields.
Interested candidates should e-mail/contact Dr. Hossain Azam immediately (hossain.azam@udc.edu, https://www.udc.edu/seas/faculty/hossain-azam/) with a cover letter, CV and copy of candidate’s transcript. Please do not contact if you are not an US Citizen or Green Card holder. The review process will continue until the positions are filled. The deadline for graduate admission is October 15 for Spring 2025 for US Citizens or Green Card Holders. The appointment for MSc student (s) will for 1.5~2 years and PhD student will be for ~3 years, with the potential for additional 1 year for PhD student contingent upon availability of funds and good academic standing in addition to research productivity of the potential candidate.
UDC is the only public institution of higher learning in the District of Columbia (DC) in the nation’s capital with a very diverse population with students from international backgrounds. A historically black college and university (HBCU), UDC is in the embassy area of different countries, the campus is in a beautiful part of Washington, DC with access to Metro on the campus. SEAS faculty members recently secured funding from different funding agencies such as NSF, DOE, NASA, NIST, USDA, DoD etc. to conduct innovative research and education.
Hossain M Azam, Ph.D., P.E.
Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering
Dept. of Civil Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
University of the District of Columbia
Building 42, Suite 213 I, 4200 Connecticut Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20008
Phone: 202-274-6293 (O), 919-271-5347 (C); Fax: 202-274-6232
E-mail: hossain.azam@udc.edu, hossain.azam@gmail.com
Website: https://www.udc.edu/seas/faculty/hossain-azam/