External Fellowships / Prizes / Awards Opportunities

The Science, Technology and Research Scholars (STARS) Program, administered by the Yale College Dean’s Office, is designed to support women, minority, economically underprivileged, and other historically underrepresented students in the sciences, engineering, and mathematics. The STARS program provides undergraduates an opportunity to combine course-based study, research, mentorship, networking, and career planning in the fields of science and technology. The program seeks to improve student performance and persistence rates in all STEM disciplines.

The Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration Stewardship Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE NNSA SSGF) provides excellent financial benefits and professional development opportunities to students pursuing a Ph.D. in fields of study that solve complex science and engineering problems critical to stewardship science.

The fellowship builds a community of talented and committed doctoral students, program alumni, DOE laboratory staff and university researchers who share a common goal to further their science while advancing national defense. The friendships and connections fellows make in the program continue to benefit them throughout their careers.

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration funds the DOE NNSA SSGF to train scientists vital to meeting U.S. workforce needs in advanced science and engineering.

Through its Fellowship Programs, the Ford Foundation seeks to increase the diversity of the nation’s college and university faculties by increasing their ethnic and racial diversity, maximize the educational benefits of diversity, and increase the number of professors who can and will use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students.

Predoctoral, Dissertation, and Postdoctoral fellowships will be awarded in a national competition administered by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on behalf of the Ford Foundation.

Dissertation

The Krell Institute manages two Department of Energy (DOE) fellowships that identify and support the nation’s top science and technology graduate students. The DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE CSGF) is funded by the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and Office of Science. The NNSA also funds the Stewardship Science Graduate Fellowship (SSGF). Besides managing programs, the Krell Institute also helps the scientific community gain support for projects. Krell frequently assists with initiatives that advance high-performance computing for the scientific and technology communities. Krell backs up its fellowship management expertise with high-quality publishing, planning of events large and small and many other community-building capabilities and services.

The DoD NDSEG Fellowship Program, established in 1989 by direction of Congress and sponsored by the Army, Navy, and Air Force, serves as a means of increasing the number of United States citizens trained in science and engineering disciplines of military importance. This program is designed to encourage Baccalaureate recipients to enter Graduate school and ultimately gain Doctorates which align to the DoD services Broad Agency Announcements (BAAs) in research and development. Since program inception, over 4,000 fellowships have been awarded and over 60,000 applications received. DoD plans to award new three-year graduate fellowships each fiscal year (subject to the availability of funds) to individuals who have demonstrated ability and special aptitude for advanced training in science and engineering. We encourage you to explore our site and learn more about this exciting opportunity.

The Wilson Fellowship is awarded on a competitive basis and is intended to support strong, assistant professor-level physicists early in their careers. It provides unique opportunities for self-directed research in experimental physics through work on the Fermilab particle physics experiment of the candidate's choice. The Fermilab experimental program includes collider physics, studies of neutrino, muon, and astroparticle physics, as well as R&D and planning for experiments at future colliders and high intensity beams. Eligibility The successful candidate will be a Ph.D. physicists of exceptional talent with at least two years of post-doctoral experience. Term of Appointment The Wilson Fellowship provides an annual salary fully competitive with a university assistant professorship. The appointment is for an initial term of three (3) years and there exists the possibility for renewal for an additional two (2) years upon completion of a successful review after the first two (2) years; thereafter, the potential exists for eventual appointment without term limit.

This fellowship provides recent graduates (within the past two years) opportunities to work on the experimental research program of the Physics Division, including high-energy collider physics; direct dark matter searches; cosmology using Type Ia Supernovae, baryon acoustic oscillations, and the cosmic microwave background; rare decay experiments; and neutrino physics. In all these areas the Physics Division follows a long tradition of advanced detector development as well as data analysis. As employees of Berkeley Lab, Chamberlain fellows work in a research environment synonymous with scientific excellence. Thirteen Nobel Prizes are associated with Berkeley Lab, 8 of them in physics. The Fellowship honors Owen Chamberlain (Nobel Prize 1959), who, together with Emilio Segre, Clyde Wiegand, and Thomas Ypsilantis, discovered the anti-proton at the Berkeley Bevatron in 1955. Berkeley Lab is a truly multidisciplinary environment, with sixteen scientific divisions in addition to Physics, and extensive ties with the adjacent University of California, Berkeley including many centers and activities (for example BCG and BEPP. Berkeley Lab divisions include Accelerator Technology and Applied Physics, Nuclear Science, Engineering, Computational Research, Scientific Networking, and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center.

The mission of the MIT Pappalardo Fellowships in Physics is to sustain a distinguished, on-campus postdoctoral fellowship program for the Department that identifies, recruits and supports the most talented and promising young physicists at an early stage of their careers. This initiative was made possible by the encouragement and generosity of Mr. A. Neil Pappalardo (EE '64), an MIT alumnus with a long history of generosity to both the Institute and the Department of Physics. The program traditionally appoints three new Fellows per academic year for a three-year fellowship term each. Fellows are selected by means of an annual competition for which candidates cannot apply directly, but must be nominated by a faculty member or senior researcher within the international community of physics, astronomy or related fields. All MIT Pappalardo Fellows in Physics are provided with: complete independence in selection and focus of research direction within the MIT Department of Physics throughout their three-year fellowship term; active faculty mentoring fostered by weekly luncheons and monthly dinners with faculty and guests during the academic year, which promotes scientific exchange and professional growth for the Fellows; a competitive annual stipend with an annual cost-of-living increase, combined with $5,000 per year in discretionary research funds; and MIT Medical Affiliate health insurance coverage for Fellows and their dependents.

Award offers for the NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowships are normally made on or around February 1. However, due to the partial federal government shutdown, review panels for the program have been delayed because many NSF employees were not permitted to work during the shutdown. We will complete the review of proposals and make offers as soon as possible. Further updates will be posted here. Contact Harshal Gupta Email: hgupta@nsf.gov Phone: 703-292-5039

The Schmidt Science Fellows Program, in association with the Rhodes Trust, has announced the 2021-2022 fellowship competition. The postdoctoral program provides participants with a stipend of $100,000 and features two core components: full-time postdoctoral research and a global meeting series. The program aims to expose participants to new scientific breakthroughs, new fields of studies, new micro-cultures, and new ideas that they will take with them throughout their lives. “We encourage our fellows to take a scientific risk this year and to think broadly and deeply about where across the globe they undertake their interdisciplinary pivot.”

Eligibility

In order to be eligible for nomination to the Schmidt Science Fellows application process, candidates must meet the following requirements:

Have conducted their graduate degree in the natural sciences (Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Earth Sciences), Engineering, Mathematics, or Computing – and all sub-disciplines therein.

Have completed, or expect to complete, all of the requirements for the conferral of their PhD in one of these fields between June 1, 2021 and July 30, 2022.

Be available for the entire period of the 2022 program, from July 2022 to September 2023 including attendance of the Global Meeting Series (whether virtual or in person, as conditions allow, and including additional virtual programming).

Be nominated by a designated senior official at one of our nominating partner institutions.

Selection Criteria

• Extraordinary Achievement - Clear record of academic achievement of the highest quality in the sciences and an extraordinary degree of intelligence.

• Scientific Curiosity - High degree of intellectual curiosity combined with energy and creativity; a record of continuous innovation and/or use of new technologies.

• Alignment with the Program - Interest in pursuing a year or more of postdoctoral study in a field different from the applicant’s Ph.D. discipline and a belief that interdisciplinary science and the taking of appropriate scientific risks are important for the advancement of discovery.

• Collaborative Spirit - Demonstrated history of effective collaboration with diverse team members.

• Global Ambitions - Desire to use one’s personal talents and science to make a positive difference in society and the world.

• Character and Leadership - Genuine and demonstrable potential for science leadership, displaying perseverance, resilience, a moral compass, and a galvanizing force of personality. For more information, please see the Foundation’s selection criteria pages.

Yale Application Procedure

The Graduate School may nominate up to seven recent graduates/students for Schmidt Science Fellowships. The internal competition application deadline is Monday, May 31, 2021 at noon (EDT). Complete applications, including one letter of recommendation, must be received by this date for the application to be considered.

The application should include:

1. Schmidt Science Fellow internal application coversheet.

2. A description of the applicant’s dissertation research with an emphasis on why the research represents a significant advance in the applicant’s field and current/future benefits to society (up to one page).

3. Short, one- or two-paragraph statements addressing the six criteria listed above (up to a total of two pages).

4. A statement (up to one page) describing what field, different from the dissertation field, the applicant plans to study and a tentative plan of study. The applicant may change this in the final application, if selected as a Yale nominee.

5. Updated CV or resume. 6. A letter of recommendation from the applicant’s dissertation adviser addressing the six selection criteria listed above.

The applicant should submit items 1-5 together as a single PDF document to GSASadministrativedean@yale.edu. The dissertation adviser should independently submit a letter of recommendation to the same email address.

Next Steps

Applicants will be notified by July 1 as to whether they have been nominated to the Foundation. Nominees will be instructed to register their intent to apply online, using a unique access code provided to them. They will then have until August 31, 2021 to submit a full application.

Additional information can be found at https://schmidtsciencefellows.org/.

The Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science is pleased to announce the Kathryn A. Day Miller Postdoctoral Fellowship Award. This award was established through a major pledge to the Institute by Professor Randy Schekman and Professor Sabeeha Merchant in honor of Kathy’s dedicated service to the Institute over a 30 year career. Kathy’s wishes are to support an outstanding young Miller Fellow. Eligible recipients will be selected through the established Miller Fellowship program competition and priority consideration will be granted to candidates who have demonstrated efforts towards community building and outreach in support of science. Kathy Day began her University of California career at UC Santa Barbara where she simultaneously obtained her Master’s Degree in Education. Following her 5 years in Southern California, she moved to the Bay Area with her family and was hired by Professor Fred Wilt to be the administrative head of the Miller Institute. Over the three decades of her service to the University and the Institute, she helped foster the overall growth of the program. Miller Fellowships expanded from 2 to 3 year terms, the Miller Senior Fellowship Program began, and the Annual Interdisciplinary Symposium was created. Kathy was dedicated to building a sense of community, particularly among the Miller Fellows. Picnics, hikes, field trips and social gatherings were key to developing these long-lasting relationships. Randy Schekman, Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2013, was appointed the first Miller Senior Fellow in 2008. He has long been associated with the Miller Institute as a host to both Miller Fellows and Visiting Miller Professors. Professor Sabeeha Merchant, Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology and Plant and Microbial Biology, was a Miller Institute invited speaker at the 2019 annual symposium. Through their generosity, this new fellowship program has been established to continue their desire to support scientific research at the highest levels. Nominations for the Kathryn A. Day Miller Postdoctoral Fellowship award will be accepted during the Fall competition cycle for awards in the following Academic Year. Complete instructions will be made available on the Miller Institute website at: http://miller.berkeley.edu/fellowship.