diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 1918d175..8ef7869a 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ python:
 virtualenv:
   system_site_packages: true
 before_install:
-  - sudo apt-get install -qq python-numpy python-scipy python-matplotlib
+  - sudo apt-get install -qq python-numpy python-scipy python-matplotlib libhdf5-dev
   - python SimPEG/setup.py
 # command to install dependencies
 install: "pip install -r requirements.txt --use-mirrors"