Computational Science Education

B. Graduate Programs

In the 1998 survey1 of computational science education programs that preceded this survey, 31 graduate programs were described.  In 1999 that survey was updated by Martha Lee Ennis at the Albuquerque High Performance Computing Center at the University of New Mexico2.  The Ennis report described 47 programs in the United States including, for many schools, information about the number of years the program has existed, the number of graduates, and plans for the future.  The schools included in the Ennis report are listed in Table 3.

In 2001, the SIAM Working Group on CSE Education published a comprehensive report on Graduate Education in Computational Science and Engineering3. This report discussed the definition of CSE and its role in science and industry.  It then summarized graduate level objectives and curricula.  Several example programs in the U.S. (Stanford University, University of Texas at Austin, University of Illinois, and Purdue University) and Europe (ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden) were covered in detail.  The report concluded with a consideration of how SIAM may contribute to graduate CSE education in the future.

Table 3. Graduate Computational Science Programs2


Baylor College of Medicine PhD in Structural & Computational Biology & Molecular Biophysics
Boston University CSE courses through the Center for Computational Sciences
California Institute of Technology PhD in Applied & Computational Mathematics with several concentrations
Carnegie-Mellon University Minors in science departments
Clemson University CSE courses in the Computer Science Department
Colorado State University MS in Applied and Computational Mathematics
Cornell University CSE courses; PhD in Applied Mathematics includes Computational Science
Duke University CSE certificate, Center for Computational Science and Engineering
Florida State University PhD from home department; CSE department degrees
George Mason University PhD in Computational  Sciences and  Informatics
George Washington University CSE Courses in the Physics Department
Indiana University at Bloomington PhD Minor in Scientific Computing
Louisiana Technical University PhD in Computational Analysis and Modeling
Louisiana State University Dual Physics PhD/Computer Science MS
Massachusetts Institute of Technology CSE courses in Mathematics and EE & Computer Science Departments
Mississippi State University MS, PhD in Computational Engineering
New York University, Courant Institute MS in Scientific Computing
North Carolina State University Specialty degree as an extended minor
The Ohio State University CSE courses in Computer and Information Science Department
Princeton University PhD, Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics
Purdue University MS, PhD in traditional department with a specialization in CSE
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute MS, PhD from home department with CSE certificate
Rice University Professional Master's degree, PhD in CSE
San Diego State University MS, PhD in Computational Science
Stanford University MS, PhD, Scientific Computing and Computational Mathematics
Syracuse University  CSE programs through the Northeast Parallel Architectures Center 
University of Arizona PhD minor in CSE
University of California at Davis Ph.D. in Applied Science with Emphasis in Computational Science
University of California at San Diego PhD, Program in Scientific Computation (planned)
University of Colorado CSE courses in Department of Computer Science
University of Illinois, Chicago PhD and MS in Computational Science and Applied Mathematics
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign MS, PhD in traditional department with a specialization in CSE
University of Iowa Interdisciplinary PhD, Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science
University of Louisiana, Lafayette MS, PhD in Computational Science and in Computational Engineering
University of Michigan PhD in discipline with “..and Scientific Computing”; MS in Scientific Computing
University of Minnesota MS, PhD in Scientific Computing
University of Nevada, Las Vegas CSE courses, Mathematical Sciences Department
University of New Mexico MS, PhD in home department with a certificate in CSE
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill  Interdisciplinary programs
University of Oregon Interdisciplinary Computational Science Institute
University of Pittsburgh PhD in Computational Biology
University of San Francisco Computational science thesis for MS
University of Texas at Austin MS, PhD in Computational and Applied Mathematics
University of Utah MS and graduate certificate in Computational Engineering and Science
University of Wisconsin Professional Master's Degree Program in Computational Sciences
Vanderbilt University CSE courses in Physics & Astronomy and Computer Science Departments



1. Charles D. Swanson, Computational Science Education, SGI, March 1998.

2. Martha Lee Ennis, Update on the Status of Computational Science and Engineering in U.S. Graduate Programs, Albuquerque High Performance Computing Center, The University of New Mexico, AHPCC99-023, September 28, 1999.

3. Working group on CSE Education, Graduate Education in Computational Science and Engineering, SIAM Review, Vol. 43, No. 1, pp. 163-177, March 2001.


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