19-20 IBM Ph.D. Fellowship Program (Fall 2019)

Owned by Emma Ilukhin
Last updated: Oct 14, 2019 by shendon
3 min read

Internal Deadline: 10/13/2019 by 11:59PM
External Deadline: 10/24/2019

IBM Ph.D. Fellowship Program (Fall 2019)

The IBM Ph.D. Fellowship Awards Program is an intensely competitive worldwide program, which honors exceptional Ph.D. students who have an interest in solving problems that are important to IBM and fundamental to innovation in many academic disciplines and areas of study. Strong collaboration with faculty, students and universities is vital to IBM. The IBM PhD Fellowship Program advances this collaboration by recognizing and supporting exceptional PhD students who want to make their mark in promising and disruptive technologies. Focus areas include the following topics of particular interest:

  • AI / Cognitive Computing
  • Cloud / Open Source
  • Data Science
  • Internet of Things
  • Quantum Computing
  • Security / Cyber Security

Since the creation of the IBM PhD Fellowship Program in 1951, we have supported thousands of PhD students -- with more than 700 students supported over the past 10 years alone.

Preference will be given to students who have had an IBM internship or have closely collaborated with technical or services people from IBM.

In the US, fellowship recipients while in school will receive a stipend for living expenses, travel, and to attend conferences ($35,000 for 2020-2021 and $35,000 for 2021-2022). US fellowship recipients will also receive $25,000 toward their education in 2020-2021.

All IBM PhD Fellowship awardees will be mentored by an IBMer in order to collaborate on a research or technology project for the duration of the award period and are strongly encouraged to do an internship during the first or second year of their award.

See: https://www.research.ibm.com/university/awards/fellowships-faq.html
         https://www.research.ibm.com/university/awards/fellowships.html



 Eligibility

Nominations are welcome for students of all nationalities. Students must be nominated by a doctoral faculty member. Students should have three years remaining in their graduate program at the time of nomination. For example, nominees that are enrolled in a four-year graduate program should have completed two years of their graduate program as of summer 2020 in order to benefit the most. Non-US Citizens who wish to participate in an internship in the US must obtain work authorization under the specifics of their visa. Students from US embargoed countries are not eligible for the 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 IBM, and their academic progress to-date, as evidenced by publications and endorsements from their faculty advisor and department head. Students receiving a comparable fellowship from another company or institution during the same academic period may not be eligible for an IBM PhD Fellowship.

Note: Over the last few years, previous winners from this department have all been 1-2 years away from graduation, and all had internships/co-ops with IBM prior to applying for the fellowship.

 Submission Details (by 10/13/19 at 11:59P)

Required Materials:

  1. Student's C.V./resume.  3 page limit.
  2. Began PhD program. YYYY-MM
  3. Expected graduation date. YYYY-MM
  4. Immigration Status. If the nominee is interested in interning at an IBM Research lab, please provide information on their work status. For example in the US, please provide the student's Visa status (E-1, F-1, H-1, or J-1).
  5. A description of the student's Ph.D. dissertation. IBM has set a 2000 character limit.  For internal review, please submit both a one-page statement and a 2000 character statement. 
  6. Faculty Adviser's evaluation. "Include comparisons with peers and recent graduates, and detail what the impact of this student's thesis is likely to be. Also include evidence of outstanding achievement in both academic and research activities (other fellowships, awards, grants, and/or recognition of academic achievement)"  NOTE: IBM has set a 2000 character limit on evaluations.  However, for the internal review, please submit a standard-length letter.
  7. A description of the any of the nominee's special considerations, such as personal attributes, or other (non-CS) accomplishments, etc.  IBM has set a 1000 character limit.
  8. *Strongly Encouraged* A reference letter from a scientist at IBM. For internal review. (If you do not know someone from IBM well enough to request a letter, you may want to reconsider whether or not you should apply.)

Materials should be submitted by 11:59PM on 10/13/2019 to Samantha Hendon (2237 SC).

A maximum of three nominations per department may be submitted, plus renewals.

Note: Electronic documents are preferred and should be submitted as PDFs. Letters of recommendation should be sent from the letter writer directly to Samantha. Students, submit ONE PDF named "19-20. IBM - Last Name, First Name." Note that the final submission will need to be made as plain-text (online text-box submission).