Funded PhD in Water Governance, Infrastructure, and Risk at Penn State Pennsylvania State University in United States

Funded PhD opportunity at Pennsylvania State University in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

The project focuses on water governance, infrastructure resilience, and risk, with related research areas including climate adaptation, science-policy interfaces, and AI for social good. The work is described as using mixed methods across qualitative, quantitative, and computational approaches, with an emphasis on policy relevance and real-world impact.

Supervisor: Christine Kirchhoff ([email protected]).

Ideal background: experience with mixed methods research, two or more strong publications, and interest in policy-relevant research. Experience using LLMs or AI tools for text extraction and structuring is a plus.

Funding: the post states that this is a funded PhD opportunity, but no stipend amount or detailed funding package is provided.

Start date: Fall 2026 or Spring 2027.

How to apply: interested students should contact the supervisor directly to discuss research fit and application details.

This opportunity is a strong fit for applicants interested in civil and environmental engineering, water systems, governance, public policy, and computational or AI-assisted research methods.