Graduate Students

IIHR is a research center within the University of Iowa College of Engineering. IIHR graduate students earn an MS or PhD degree in the academic department where they are accepted. Students affiliate with IIHR through their faculty advisor.

IIHR graduate students have access to IIHR’s world-renowned faculty researchers, state-of-the-art computational simulations, laboratory modeling facilities, and a vast array of field instrumentation and sensor networks. Students also benefit from emersion in multidisciplinary programs in a multicultural environment.

IIHR graduate students currently represent these departments:

IIHR students gets a comprehensive education in hydroscience, including:

An understanding of the physics of flow and flow-related processes
Development of analysis, modeling, and simulation skills
Use of state-of-the-art equipment, instrumentation, and computer methods
An understanding of environmental, economic, social, and international issues
Communication skills for a successful professional career

Affiliating with IIHR

Because IIHR is not an academic department, students do not apply to IIHR for admission. The University of Iowa Graduate College and the Office of Admissions manage admission for prospective graduate students.

Students affiliate with IIHR based on their research interests in fluids and hydroscience and their academic advisors’ affiliation with IIHR.

Most of our students are accepted to a department within the College of Engineering, but IIHR also has students in many other departments, such as earth and environmental sciences, mathematics, and others.

Research Assistantships

IIHR offers graduate student research assistantships (RAs) on a competitive basis to many of its students. Most RAs are continuing 12-month appointments effective until the degree objective is attained, providing progress on thesis research, assignments, and coursework is satisfactory.

Starting July 1, 2024, the half-time RA pay for IIHR graduate students is $31,852 for MS students and $32,888 for PhD students per fiscal year, depending on degree status. RAs with at least a quarter-time appointment receive Iowa’s resident tuition rate (see fees for Graduate College, Engineering) and a tuition scholarship that covers the full amount of Iowa’s resident tuition rate during the academic year, and 1/2 of other fees.

Graduate Fellows

Several scholarships and fellowships are available for graduate students:

Dr. Arthur R. Giaquinta Memorial Scholarship, established in 2007 to benefit an IIHR graduate student.
S.K. Nanda Engineering Scholarship was established in 2013 to support a deserving IIHR graduate student.
Iowa Flood Center Scholarship honors outstanding graduate students whose exceptional contributions are advancing the mission of the IFC through research.
John F. Kennedy Fellowship is a four-year graduate fellowship presented in memory of Professor John Fisher Kennedy, former director of IIHR.
Paul C. and Sara Jane Benedict Fellowship for Study of Alluvial River Processes — for one or two doctoral candidates each years.
Hunter Rouse Fellowship was established in 1988, and supports one graduate engineering student per year affiliated with IIHR.

Scholarships & Resources

Engineering Fluids Lab

IIHR developed and helps manage the fully hands-on Engineering Fluids Laboratory, which offers students a variety of experiments, including one designed by former IIHR Director Hunter Rouse — sometimes referred to as the “father of modern hydraulics.”

IIHR Director Hunter Rouse helped build and design the original University of Iowa fluids education lab in the 1940s. Today, new fluids lab facilities in the Seamans Center Annex boast state-of-the-art equipment including a wind tunnel, towing tank, open-channel flume, “mini-shaker,” a visualization water channel, the refurbished Rouse pipe experiment, and a Pelton wheel. Rouse also produced a series of educational films in fluid mechanics.

Fluids Laboratories

International Perspectives

IIHR’s International Perspectives study-abroad course, first offered in 1997, travels to India every winter to expose participants to the multi-faceted issues surrounding water resources management in this part of the world.

Former IIHR Director V.C. Patel anticipated globalization and created the course to meet the new needs. International Perspectives attracts engineering students as well as students from many other disciplines. The short (2–3 weeks) but intense course explores a variety of water resources projects. Students come home with a new sensitivity and awareness of global water issues and an enhanced understanding of international processes and decisions in water management.

Study Abroad Course