Join us

We are always looking for highly talented and motivated students to join our group. We welcome applications for funded PhD positions for Fall 2025. 

We currently have postdoctoral positions. Click here for additional details.

• Graduate students:

If you are a prospective graduate student and are interested in joining our group, you should apply to the Structural Engineering program, and mention Prof. Semnani as a potential advisor in your application. Please also email me with a copy of your CV and transcripts.  

We particularly welcome students who have their own funding or are applying for external fellowships and scholarships. There are a number of funding opportunities to consider, depending on your interests and eligibility criteria:

• • • National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship

    • National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship

    • Ford Foundation pre-doctoral fellowship

    • Fulbright Foreign Student Program

    • Hertz graduate fellowship

    • DOE Office of Science Graduate Student Research Program

    • DOE Computational Science Graduate Research Fellowship

    • DOD SMART fellowship

Also, note the the information about UCSD fellowships on the UCSD Graduate Division website here. 

• Postdoctoral scholars:

If you are interested in a postdoctoral  position, please email me with your CV to discuss potential openings. I am happy to work with exceptional postdoctoral candidates to obtain external funding. Some interesting opportunities include:

• • • UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship

    • UC Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellowship

    • NSF Earth Sciences Postdoctoral Fellowship

    • L'Oréal USA For Women in Science Fellowship

    • Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship

• Undergraduate students:

Our group welcomes excellent and motivated undergraduate students for various potential research opportunities. Please email me with your CV, research interests, and programming experience. If you are an undergraduate student at UCSD, you may consider Triton Research and Experiential Learning Scholars (TRELS) program, the McNair program, and Undergraduate Research Scholarships program.