Florida Atlantic University will begin offering an undergraduate degree program in civil engineering in the fall 2001 semester and has named Dr. Stephan Nix head of the College of Engineering's new Department of Civil Engineering.

Approved last year by the Florida Board of Regents, the bachelor's degree will prepare students for modern civil engineering practice with coursework in water resources, environmental engineering, structures, transportation, and geotechnical engineering. Because civil engineering practice tends to occur in public arenas such as government and urban planning, the curriculum will include courses in communication, the social sciences, and the humanities to provide cultural and political awareness and communication and business skills.

"Civil engineering is an interesting world," said Dr. Nix, who joins FAU from Northern Arizona University where he served as chair of the Civil Engineering and Environmental Engineering Department. "Civil engineers spend their time working to improve the world in which we live. South Florida is filled with opportunities because the region's growth has to be predicated on infrastructure."

Dr. Nix calls civil engineering the engineering that hits you at home. "It's important, and it's everywhere," he says. South Florida's large and rapidly expanding population, sensitive ecosystems, and limited water supplies create demand for civil engineering expertise for buildings, bridges, highways, airports, port facilities, rapid transit systems, waste and water treatment systems, beach erosion control, pollution control, and contingency planning for natural disasters. "South Florida needs civil engineers to work with everything from transportation to restoring the Everglades," Dr. Nix said.

After growing up in Homestead, Florida, Nix earned his bachelor's in Engineering Science and master's and doctoral degrees in Environmental Engineering at the University of Florida. He served on the faculties at Syracuse University and the University of Alabama before joining the Northern Arizona faculty in 1997.

FAU's new program in Civil Engineering is open to both freshmen and transfer students. Dr. Nix recommends a strong math and science background to enter the program. "Students don't have to be Einsteins, they don't have to be whizzes in math and science," he said, "but they have to be comfortable with them." Dr. Nix also noted "the best attribute a potential civil engineer can have is a strong desire to serve society." The Department also offers a master's degree with emphases in geotechnical engineering, structural engineering, or environmental and water resources engineering.

For more information about the program, call (561) 297-0466 or e-mail civil@fau.edu.