Columbia University Civil Engineering & Engineering Mechanics

Columbia University was founded as King’s College in 1754 and thus it is older than the United States of America. In fact, it is the fifth oldest university in the country. The development of the School of Engineering was initiated in 1864 when the School of Mines, the first school of its kind in the United States, was established. Civil engineering was added to the curriculum in 1868, making our department one of the oldest in the country. Courses in metallurgical, electrical, mechanical, chemical, and industrial engineering and in mineral dressing were established later.

The Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics has supplied faculty for many of the world’s leading engineering schools. At the same time, it has produced successful alumni who have held executive and technical positions of the highest responsibility.

The golden age of the department was the period from the 1950s to the 1970s, during which it was ranked as one of the country’s top, if not the top, department in engineering mechanics. Among its faculty were Maciej Bieniek, Hans Bleich, Donald Burmister, Richard Freudenthal, Raymond Mindlin, Mario Salvadori, and Richard Skalak, to name only some of them. Each one of these professors was a giant in his field, who determined the directions that entire areas of study and research would take in the years to come. Today, their students can be found as faculty in many of the top universities in the world.