Schmidt Science Fellowship

$100,000 per year for a total of up to $200,000 stipend for a full-time 12–24-month fellowship.

Fellows can extend or shorten their placement within the 12–24-month range in discussion with the program. Fellows wishing to continue their fellowship research placement beyond 12 months participate in a review process at ten months to discuss progress, objectives, and plans for the remainder of the placement.

Nominees must

• Have received or expect to receive a Ph.D. in natural sciences (Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Earth Sciences), engineering, mathematics, or computing– and all sub-disciplines therein.
• The date of the completion of the Ph.D. must be between May 15, 2024, and June 30, 2025.
• Be nominated by a designated senior official at one of the nominating partner institutions. (MIT is a nominating institution.)

The announcement for the internal competition is distributed via the MIT FundOps listserv. 

A copy of the internal announcement is posted at the submission portal.

1. Please pay careful attention to the eligibility criteria. Candidates must have completed their Ph.D. between May 15, 2024, and June 30, 2025.
2. Any MIT faculty may nominate an MIT student or MIT recent graduate who meets the eligibility requirements. Self-nominations will not be accepted. Candidates should identify an MIT faculty member willing to nominate them, provide a letter of support, and submit the nomination materials on behalf of the applicant. If a faculty member is nominating more than one individual, they should email researchdev@mit.edu with a ranking of the individuals nominated with a brief reasoning.
3. Once candidates have confirmed their eligibility, they should work with their identified faculty nominator, who will submit the following application materials to the internal submission portal for consideration by the internal deadline.

   The submitted materials will include the following:

   • Letter of nomination from an MIT faculty member attesting to the nominee’s accomplishments and capabilities (1-page max)
   • A personal statement from the nominee on why the nominee is interested in the program and what they hope to achieve during and after it (1-page max)
   • Brief statement confirming that the nominee will have completed, or expect to complete, all of the requirements for the conferral of their PhD in one of the fields between 15 May 2024 and 30 June 2025
   • Potential Candidate’s CV (2-page max)

4. An internal selection committee will review the applications received, and the selected candidates will receive a notice to proceed forward in the application process to the Schmidt Fellows Program.

The Schmidt Science Fellows may pursue postdoctoral research in any laboratory that is substantially different from their existing field of expertise. The degree of difference will be subject to a case-by-case evaluation. It may be that a Fellow pursues a completely new line of inquiry within the same discipline, or it might be a related line of inquiry in an entirely new discipline.