Chapman University’s Schmid College of Science and Technology has announced a new Ph.D. program in computational science. Approved by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges in early December, the new program will be offered in fall 2012 and is accepting candidates now.

“Chapman will be one of the few universities in the world to offer degree programs in the cutting-edge field of computational science at the undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels,” said Daniele Struppa, Ph.D., chancellor. “This will be a distinctive graduate program meeting a critical need that is largely unaddressed by other institutions of higher learning and will provide an academic entity known nationally and internationally as a model for science education and research.”

Computational science is fundamentally interdisciplinary, combining methods and techniques from mathematics and computer science with other science disciplines to create new knowledge and understanding. Computer modeling and simulation – the tools of computational scientists – have become recognized as engines of economic growth and scientific advancement. A Ph.D. in computational science prepares students for employment in academia, scientific research laboratories, private industry and government agencies.

“While disciplinary training is still paramount for a solid footing in the sciences, such as  physics, biology, chemistry and mathematics, the complexity of the 21st century cannot be viewed through the lens of a single discipline,” said Michael Fahy, Ph.D., Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, Associate Dean, School of Computational Science, Schmid College of Science & Technology. “A vertical integration will allow our scientists and researchers to be in the classroom with our freshmen and in the laboratories with our graduate students. The combination of teaching and research across different scientific disciplines will create an optimum environment for developing leaders in this dynamic field.”

Chapman has been laying the groundwork for establishing a niche program in the sciences since 2006. An internationally known team of physicists and computational scientists was hired in 2007 to collaborate with current faculty whose expertise was already well established. The MS degree in computational science was introduced at Chapman in 2009.

An information session is scheduled for April 12 at 6 p.m. For more information, visit the School of Computational Sciences homepage.