History

Classes in civil engineering have been offered at MIT ever since the Institute opened in 1865, just after the Civil War. Since that time, the department's name and curriculum have changed several times in keeping with the evolving needs of humanity.

The course was first called Civil and Topographical Engineering and the focus was on surveying and building infrastructure: roads, railways, bridges, canals and drinking water systems. In 1889, Civil Engineering merged with Sanitary Engineering, and in 1892 the name of the department was changed to Civil and Sanitary Engineering. In 1934, the Building and Engineering Department was absorbed into Civil and Sanitary Engineering, and early in the 1960s, Sanitary Engineering was dropped from the department name.

In 1992, the department was renamed the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, in recognition of the new combined discipline and its added emphasis on environmental chemistry and biology.

Today, the department has the expanded mission of ensuring that the human environment we create is compatible with the natural world. We need to understand how the Earth works so we can design sustainable solutions for energy, transportation, manufacturing, housing, agriculture and public health.

CEE Department Head