Schmidt Science Fellows Program Nominations Due May 31

The Graduate College invites nominations for the 2022-2023 Schmidt Science Fellows Program. Now in its fifth year, the Schmidt program offers an exceptional postdoctoral research and professional development experience for students in the natural sciences, engineering, mathematics, and computing-oriented disciplines. Targeting students who are near completion of their PhDs, the program offers postdoctoral training through a "disciplinary pivot," i.e, training in a field outside of the student’s current area of expertise. The fellowship offers a $100,000 annual stipend for up to two years, and it places awardees at the world's top research institutions. Awardees choose their placements in consultation with the Schmidt program.

The fellowship is offered by the Schmidt Family Foundation, founded by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife Wendy Schmidt, in partnership with the Rhodes Trust, home of the prestigious Rhodes Scholarships. As the Schmidt website explains, the program “provides the world’s best emerging scientists with new skills and perspectives to develop novel solutions to society’s challenges, become scientific and societal thought leaders, and accelerate ground-breaking discoveries.” To that end, the program "looks for the brightest minds in the natural sciences, mathematics, engineering, and computing who are interested in broadening their horizons."

To be eligible, students must complete their PhDs between June 1, 2021 and July 30, 2022.

The Schmidt Family Foundation has invited only select universities to participate in this program, and the University of Illinois is one of those universities. We are allowed to submit nine representatives for consideration in the national competition, and the Graduate College will coordinate the process to select those nine. That process will operate via departmental nomination, and eligible departments may submit up to two nominations each.

The deadline to submit all components of the Schmidt nomination package to the Physics Grad Office is May 31, 2021. This will give us enough time to select two nominations and submit the nominations by the campus deadline of June 2, 2021.

You can find details on the nomination process in the Schmidt listing in our Fellowship Finder database.