Hydraulic and Hydrologic Engineering
Hydraulic and Hydrologic engineers work to prevent floods, to supply water for cities, industry and irrigation, to treat wastewater, to protect beaches, and to manage and redirect rivers. In the hydraulics and hydrology profession you will be using scientific study of the properties, distribution, and circulation of water on the surface of the land, in the soil and underlying rocks, and in the atmosphere.
In Civil Engineering's Hydraulic and Hydrologic Engineering specialty group, also sometimes termed Water Resources Engineering, you will deal with problems and issues involving the flow and storage of water. Specific applications have traditionally arisen in urban drainage, measures for mitigating the effects of floods and droughts, water supply, water treatment, and coastal protection. More recently, the flow implications for water quality have become of greater concern, and the transport of sediment, nutrients, and pollutants in natural or engineered
watercourses has received greater attention. The Hydraulic and Hydrologic Faculty members are particularly interested in applying the latest software and hardware technologies to investigate, understand, and model fundamental flow and transport processes with the widest range of applications. Research opportunities may be found in projects dealing with turbulent flows, watershed hydrology, environmental hydraulics, and contaminant transport. The Hydromechanics and Burke Research Laboratories give undergraduate and graduate students hands-on learning opportunities to expand their experience here at Purdue.
Spotlights
December 21, 2023
In a recent episode of the PBS news series Great Lakes Now, Professor Cary Troy speaks on how climate change and coastal erosion is affecting Indiana shorelines.
September 27, 2023
Ph.D. candidate Hazem Usama Abdelhady has been selected as a 2023 Freeman Fellowship recipient by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
May 4, 2023
Ph.D. candidate Hazem Usama Abdelhady is the winner of the 2023 International Association for Great Lakes Research (IAGLR) Scholarship for his dissertation research on Great Lakes shoreline changes in response to rapid water level fluctuation.
May 6, 2022
Venkatesh Merwade, Professor of Civil Engineering, received the 2022 Graduate Student Mentorship Award presented by the College of Engineering at the 2022 Faculty and Lecturer Excellence Awards Banquet.
February 8, 2022
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Professor Emeritus Jack Delleur. Over his decades as an educator, Prof. Delleur guided and inspired countless alumni, faculty, and friends. He will truly be missed.
November 10, 2021
The Institute for Geospatial Understanding through an Integrative Discovery Environment (known as I-GUIDE), based at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, will help researchers better estimate and predict risk and anticipate impacts from natural disasters or climate change.
September 2, 2021
Cary Troy, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, is part of a sweeping study funded through Illinois-Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin Sea Grant programs to assess Lake Michigan coastal erosion levels, causes, and management options from physical, social and community perspectives. The two-year project that began in 2020 is led by Troy, Guy Meadows with Michigan Technological University and Chin Wu at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
November 15, 2020
A paper co-authored by Prof. Venkatesh Merwade and grad students Zhu Liu and Keighobad Jafarzadegan has been named a Journal of Flood Risk Management Highly Commended Paper by the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management.
January 13, 2020
Rao "G.S." Govindaraju, Bowen Engineering Head of Civil Engineering and Christopher B. and Susan S. Burke Professor of Civil Engineering, has been recognized by the American Institute of Hydrology with the AIH Founders Award.
December 18, 2019
From Tanzania to the Netherlands, Purdue doctoral student Jessica Eisma is addressing challenges of water resource management fundamental to everyday life and long-term sustainability for populations worldwide.
December 3, 2019
"THANKS FOR GIVING" has become a Multidisciplinary Engineering (MDE) annual event of recognition for faculty across the college and campus. MDE Seniors have an opportunity to nominate a professor who provided them a superior learning experience throughout their journey at Purdue. The 2019 Golden Squirrel Scholar with the most "shout outs" is Dr. Cary Troy, Associate Professor of the Lyles School of Civil Engineering, pictured here with senior Eleanor Coffin - one of the students who nominated him. Listen in on Dr. Troy's remarks on his recognition. Congratulations, Dr. Troy!
October 18, 2019
Rao "G.S." Govindaraju, Bowen Engineering Head of Civil Engineering and Christopher B. and Susan S. Burke Professor of Civil Engineering, has been named a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Only 220 of ASCE's more than 150,000 current members can call themselves Distinguished Members.
July 22, 2019
Alka Tiwari, a first-year Ph.D. student in the field of Hydrology and Hydraulics in the Lyles School of Civil Engineering, has been awarded the 2019 NASA Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) fellowship to pursue her research work. The FINESST fellowship is a highly competitive program, and Alka is the only recipient this year from Purdue University.
June 26, 2019
Civil Engineering PhD candidate Jessica Eisma (advised by Dr. Venkatesh Merwade) was named a recipient of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Opportunities Worldwide (GROW) award. Jessica will be using the award to spend the Spring 2020 semester at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands working on the Transforming Weather Water data into value-added Information services for sustainable Growth in Africa (TWIGA) project with Prof. Nick van de Giesen.
April 24, 2019
Rao "G.S." Govindaraju, Bowen Engineering Head of Civil Engineering and Christopher B. and Susan S. Burke Professor of Civil Engineering, has been recognized by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) with the Ven Te Chow Award for lifetime achievement in the field of hydrologic engineering.
January 7, 2019
Sayan Dey, a PhD student in hydraulics and hydrology, has been selected as Purdue's 2018 Esri Development Center (EDC) Student of the Year for his work on "Watershed scale River Channel Morphology Model: An ArcMap tool for automated generation of river channel geometry."
July 5, 2018
Professor Venkatesh Merwade received the 2018 Indiana Water Resources Association (IWRA) Outstanding Achievement Award in academic sector at its annual symposium in Bloomington, Indiana on June 27, 2018. The IWRA award recognizes individuals who have made significant contribution to the Indiana Water Resources Community through research and technical advances, information dissemination and education.
August 16, 2017
Adnan Rajib, a member in Dr. Venkatesh Merwade's research team in the Lyles School of Civil Engineering, is the recipient of the Spring 2017 Outstanding Graduate Student Award.
October 11, 2016
Richa Ojha, Meenu Ramadas and Rao S. Govindaraju (Bowen Engineering Head and Christopher B. and Susan S. Burke Professor of Civil Engineering) were the 2016 recipients of the ASCE State-of-the-Art of Civil Engineering Award. The annual award is for scholarly review, evaluation, and documentation of the scientific and technical information needed by the profession.
September 29, 2016
The Purdue Lyles School of Civil Engineering is committed to providing our students, faculty, and staff with the best tools available to aid them in their research and study. One of the latest additions to our school is the tilting flume, located in the Christopher and Susan Burke Hydraulics and Hydrologic Lab in Hampton Hall.
