Starting this fall, students interested in conducting aerospace research will be able to earn a PhD in aerospace engineering from the Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design.
UT San Antonio will be one of just four universities in the state offering a PhD in aerospace engineering, joining Texas A&M, the University of Texas at Arlington, and the University of Texas at Austin.
The new doctoral program comes as demand for advanced aerospace expertise continues to outpace the number of graduates entering the field. A recent workforce analysis identified approximately 200 positions in Texas requiring a PhD in aerospace engineering, while the state’s three existing doctoral programs produce only about 40 graduates annually. Employment of aerospace engineers is projected to grow nearly 16% in Texas over the next decade and more than 6% nationally.
That demand is being driven in part by increasingly complex challenges in space exploration, hypersonic flight, advanced materials and manufacturing, and next-generation propulsion. Addressing those challenges requires specialized science and engineering expertise often developed at the graduate level, positioning UT San Antonio’s new program to help prepare researchers and engineers for emerging workforce needs.
“Our facilities, research programs and faculty expertise are already well positioned to support PhD-level studies in aerospace engineering,” said Chris Combs, PhD, associate dean of research in Klesse College and the Janey & Dolph Briscoe Distinguished Professor in Mechanical, Aerospace, and Industrial Engineering. “Students are currently earning mechanical engineering degrees while conducting aerospace research. Conferring PhDs allows us to put the proper name to the work and level of research already taking place.”
The college has worked to expand its aerospace programs for several years, including its first master’s-level class in aerospace engineering in 2022.
Klesse College has also expanded its aerospace research capabilities and developed laboratories that allow researchers to conduct advanced experiments in the field, said Daniel I. Pineda, the Dee Howard Endowed associate professor of mechanical engineering.
“Having a PhD means we’re going to be conducting experiments and cutting-edge research that faces the field today,” Pineda said. “Whether it’s high-speed atmospheric reentry, chemical propulsion, or rotating detonation engines, the advanced levels of technology we have will allow our students to participate not just as test engineers or design engineers but really pushing the boundaries of understanding what physics are needed to design and build better devices.”
The college’s advanced research equipment includes a hypersonic wind tunnel, which Combs estimates is one of only about five housed at U.S. universities.
“There are not a lot of places where you can run a hypersonic wind tunnel on a university campus,” Combs said. “That gives us a big opportunity to train PhD students.”
“Our areas of expertise — hypersonics, diagnostic development, high-speed flows, combustion and propulsion — we have the expertise here that we can leverage as a differentiator from other institutions,” Pineda added. “If you want to develop diagnostics, I have, to my knowledge, the only shock tube in the UT system.”
The shock tube allows researchers to use laser-based measurements to study gas-flow conditions associated with next-generation propulsion, energy conversion and hypersonic flight systems.
Combs said the combination of specialized doctoral training and access to advanced research facilities could help UT San Antonio graduates stand out in a competitive aerospace workforce.
“There’s a huge surplus of opportunities for students,” he said “The students we have coming out of our labs — people are fighting over them.”
