OpenFieldUNR · Reno, Nevada, United States
The University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) is the historic land-grant Carnegie R1 public flagship research university of Nevada, established in 1874. Situated in the Sierra Nevada foothills, UNR is globally renowned for earthquake and structural engineering—operating the world's largest multi-shake table earthquake simulation laboratory—as well as mining engineering, lithium battery materials, neurosciences, and atmospheric science.
UNR comprises 11 colleges and schools including the College of Engineering, Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, University of Nevada Reno School of Medicine, College of Agriculture, Biotechnology & Natural Resources, and the College of Science. Key hubs include the Earthquake Engineering Laboratory and the Nevada Seismological Laboratory.
Undergraduate admissions evaluate high school GPA (minimum 3.0 core) and college prep curriculum. Graduate admissions require an accredited bachelor's degree with a minimum 2.75–3.0 GPA, statement of purpose, three letters of recommendation, and English language proficiency (TOEFL 79+ or IELTS 6.5+).
Elite structural engineering doctorate utilizing the multi-table shake simulation facility to test full-scale bridges, seismic base isolation systems, high-rise building resilience, and soil-structure interactions.
Housed in the world-famous Mackay School, this program explores lithium extraction metallurgy, autonomous underground robotic haulage, rock mass characterization, and mine tailings remediation.
Internationally renowned physiological research exploring gastrointestinal pacemaker interstitial cells of Cajal, vascular smooth muscle ion channel gating, and diabetic gastroparesis therapies.
Doctoral research through the Robotics Research Lab and Autonomous Systems Lab, focusing on subterranean drone exploration, multi-robot swarm mapping, and deep reinforcement learning.
Conducted in partnership with the Desert Research Institute, exploring complex terrain wind dynamics, cloud seeding aerosol physics, wildfire plume dispersion modeling, and regional drought climatology.
Graduate curriculum aligned with Nevada's lithium innovation hub, investigating solid-state lithium battery electrolytes, cathode synthesis degradation kinetics, and recyclable battery architectures.
Foundation Professor of Civil Engineering
Earthquake Engineering Laboratory & Department of Civil Engineering
Dr. Buckle is an internationally acclaimed structural engineer specializing in bridge seismic design, large-scale shake table experimentation, base isolation, a...
View researcher profile ↗Chair & Professor of Physiology and Cell Biology
Department of Physiology and Cell Biology
Dr. Sanders is a world-renowned electrophysiologist discovering the role of interstitial cells of Cajal as pacemakers in visceral smooth muscles and enteric neu...
View researcher profile ↗Associate Professor of Computer Science
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Dr. Alexis leads autonomous subterranean robotics, serving as team lead for Team CERBERUS, which won the DARPA Subterranean Challenge for autonomous robotic cav...
View researcher profile ↗OpenField is an independent research platform not officially affiliated with University of Nevada, Reno. Information reflects public documentation reviewed on 2026-10-16. Students must verify application deadlines, fee structures, and prerequisite details directly with official university admissions departments before applying.
Updated 2026-10-16 · Editorial policy · Submit corrections