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Since 1951, the IBM PhD Fellowship Program has collaborated with faculty, students, and universities by recognizing and supporting exceptional PhD students that address focused areas of interest in technology. The highly competitive IBM PhD Fellowship Awards provide funding for PhD students in the final years of their PhD program. Award recipients will be selected based on their overall potential for research excellence, the degree to which their technical interests align with those of the IBM focus areas listed in the call, and their progress to-date, as evidenced by publications and endorsements from their faculty advisor and department head. 

IBM invites applications for the IBM PhD Fellowship Awards from students whose graduate research work aligns with IBM’s strategic directions in Semiconductor Technology, Quantum Computing, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Multi-Cloud Computing and Hybrid Cloud Platforms for AI, Security, and Responsible Computing. For more information, see the IBM website.

Eligibility and Competition: 

All nominees

• Must be nominated by a doctoral faculty member; students cannot nominate themselves.
• Must be enrolled full-time in a PhD program over the academic year of the award or forfeit the fellowship.
• Should be within two years of their estimated graduation date at the time of the nomination.
• That are from U.S. embargoed countries or attending institutions located in U.S. embargoed countries are not eligible for the program.
• There is a limit of three nominations per department. Four nominations are allowed from each university. Faculty should coordinate their nomination(s) with their department chair. IBM encourages that Faculty will consider a diverse slate of candidates for nominating to the program.
• Receiving a comparable fellowship, internship, or support from another company or institution (except for academic scholarships) during the IBM PhD Fellowship funding period are ineligible for this award. IBM reserves the right to revoke nominee’s eligibility and withdraw the funding of the PhD award upon knowledge of such award.
• Must stay in the same program for the duration of the award —no transferring of departments or schools.

Students must be nominated by their department. Each department may submit three nominations. The faculty nominator of the selected student must work with the student and the CDS Awards Team to submit the application on the student's behalf by the external due date of August 30, 2024 at 11:59PM Eastern Time. Nominating faculty must submit thoroughly developed proposals, remain engaged during the vetting and due diligence process, and use their university domain email address for all correspondence with IBM.

Required Materials:

All materials should be submitted as a single PDF by the faculty nominator to cs-awards@mx.uillinois.edu. 

Please carefully read and follow the required formatting guidelines.  

If you are a student who would like to be nominated for this award, please work with your advisor or another doctoral faculty member to submit the materials below. You must ensure that you meet the student eligibility requirements as well.  

If you are a faculty member and would like to nominate a doctoral student for this award, please submit to cs-awards@mx.uillinois.edu these materials in PDF form by Tuesday, August 20th at 11:59PM:

• A completed form, developed by the CDS Awards Team, with information required for the IBM Fellowship Awards Nomination Portal
• The student's Curriculum Vitae (CV) (limit 3 pages)
• The student's PhD Project or Dissertation Title, with a description (2,000 characters or less) that should be organized into sections: Research Question or Hypothesis, Methodology Summary, and Analysis
• Your personal evaluation of the student (2,000 character limit). Include comparisons with peers and recent graduates and details of what the impact of this student's thesis is likely to be. Also include evidence of outstanding achievement in both academic and research activities (for example, other fellowships, awards, grants, and/or recognition of academic achievement). Finally, you should include an answer to, “There are many Fellowship programs available to students. Tell us what prompted you to nominate this student for the IBM PhD Fellowship Award?” 

Apply: By Tuesday, August 20th at 11:59PM Central Time, please submit all materials in PDF form to cs-awards@mx.uillinois.edu.