About

This doctoral program answers the pressing societal need for professionals with the interdisciplinary expertise necessary to redefine how we develop buildings, infrastructure, and communities. The emerging fields of bioinspiration, biointegration, and bioinclusivity provide paths towards this objective. A bioinspired built environment capitalizes on the regulative, adaptive, and integrative characteristics of biological systems and incorporates or mimics these features as part of the constructed world. In contrast, a biointegrated built environment situates constructed facilities amidst natural systems to achieve complementarity, with natural systems providing useful services to support human needs and aspirations. Finally, bioinclusive built environments afford integrative habitats for humans and non-humans coexisting together, with the needs and aspirations of both taken into account such that synergies between them can be realized. In doing so, buildings and infrastructure will more optimally respond to changing conditions and expectations – which will make the interdependent built environment more sustainable, parsimonious, and resilient, as well as ecologically integrated.

Graduates of the BioBuild program will have an immediate impact in university and industrial settings, and they will change the relationship between the built environment and our planet. We do this by bringing together faculty from departments in CAUS, COE, COS, CVM, CNRE, CALS, and CLAHS to deliver a program that explores the human-constructed world and biological and ecological systems synergistically to discover innovative connections between these disciplines.

BioBuild Fellows can receive one year or more of financial support from the program while working toward a degree in one of the departments listed below, or from a doctoral program associated with any BioBuild-affiliated faculty.

To receive full consideration for financial support in the following academic year, applications should be submitted by January 15 for fall entry or September 15 for spring entry.

Participating Colleges, Departments, and Faculty:

College of Agriculture & Life Sciences (CALS)

School of Animal Sciences - Erica Feuerbacher

College of Architecture, Art, & Design (CAAD)

School of Performing Arts - Dwight Bigler

College of Engineering (COE)

Biomedical Engineering & Mechanics - Jonathan Boreyko

Building Construction - Annie Pearce, Georg Reichard

Civil and Environmental Engineering - Michael Garvin, Farrokh Jazizadeh, Freddy Paige, Tripp Shealy

Construction Engineering & Management - Xinghua Gao

Electrical and Computer Engineering - Walid Saad

Engineering Education - Ben Chambers

Mechanical Engineering - Rolf Mueller

College of Science (COS)

Biological Sciences - Bryan Brown, Ignacio Moore

College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM)

Large Animal Clinical Sciences – Virginia Buechner-Maxwell

College of Natural Resources and Environment (CNRE)

Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation – Amy Brunner

College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences (CLAHS)

Urban Affairs & Planning - Steve Hankey

For more information please visit our web-site at biobuild.mlsoc.vt.edu or send a general request for information to [email protected].

Disciplines

Interdisciplinary Academic Programs

Requirements

Entry Requirements

At Virginia Tech, we approach admission from an inclusive, rather than exclusive, perspective. Using a holistic admissions process, we look at many aspects of each student, including such things as work experience, community involvement and service, leadership, personal and professional ethics, research and scholarship, and the barriers you have dealt with while pursuing your goals.

English Requirements

PTEMin 53
IELTSMin 6.5
TOEFLMin 80

Fee Information

Application Fee 75

How to Apply

What You'll Need

Transcripts

Include a scanned copy of your college transcripts with your online application, then arrange for an official copy to be sent to us after you receive an offer of admission.

Letters of Recommendation

Check to see whether your department requires letters of recommendation from references. If so, you can include the letter writers' email addresses in your online application, or have the people you ask to write those lettes send paper copies directly to your program’s department.

Graduate School Testing Requirements

The Graduate School does not require entrance tests, but check to see whether your department requires you to submit GRE, GMAT, or subject test scores with your application. If so, have the testing agency send official scores to Virginia Tech Graduate School, code 5859.

International students may be required to submit TOEFL scores.

Application Fees

Degree-seeking students must include a $75 fee with their application, though check to see if you qualify for a waiver or reduced fee. All application fees are non-refundable.

Refund procedure

All application fees are non-refundable.

Bio-Inspired Buildings