Education

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A World-Class Education

IIHR has been at the forefront of fluids-related education since its beginnings in 1920. Today, the institute attracts students from around the world who come to the University of Iowa for an innovative education spanning academic boundaries to provide an integrated experience that prepares students for the complex fluids-related problems they will face in their careers.

IIHR’s Multidisciplinary Approach

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
A professor points to a computer screen while three students watch

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.

A female faculty member works with a student

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, 2022, the half-time RA pay for IIHR graduate students is $30,000 for MS students and $31,000 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.

A young man sits on the prow of a boat on a river at sunrise

Graduate Fellowships

Several scholarships and fellowships are available for graduate students:

  • Paul C. and Sara Jane Benedict Fellowship for Study of Alluvial River Processes — for one or two doctoral candidates each years.
  • 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.
  • John F. Kennedy Fellowship is a four-year graduate fellowship presented in memory of Professor John Fisher Kennedy, former director of IIHR.
A student adjusts equipment before running a flume experiment

Engineering Fluids Lab

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.

Two young women examine samples from the Mississippi River bed

Sustainable Water Development Program

This National Science Foundation–funded graduate program aims to prepare burgeoning sustainability leaders to tackle water, food, and energy challenges. This unique program gives graduate students training to become multifaceted professionals, with the skills to make science understandable, relatable, and believable to a wide audience of community members, elected officials, and policy-makers.