IBM PhD Fellowship Awards Program 2021

The IBM Ph.D. Fellowship Awards Programme honors exceptional Ph.D. students who have an interest in solving problems that are important to IBM and fundamental to innovation in many areas of study. Fellows may work at internships, and be matched with IBM mentors with common research interests.

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IBM PhD Fellowship Awards Program

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. This includes pioneering work in: cognitive computing and augmented intelligence; quantum computing; blockchain; data-centric systems; advanced analytics; security; radical cloud innovation; next-generation silicon (and beyond); and brain-inspired devices and infrastructure.

IBM brings together hundreds of researchers who possess deep industry expertise across domains. Collaborating with clients in the field and in its global THINKLab network, IBM addresses some of the most challenging problems and creates disruptive technologies that hold the potential to transform companies, industries and the world at large. For more than seven decades, IBM has collaborated with clients and universities to work on multi-disciplinary projects that quickly lead to prototypes, as well as long-term projects that last for years. IBM has an environment that nurtures some of the most innovative and creative thinking in the world.

Eligible Fields of Study: The academic disciplines and areas of study include: computer science and engineering, electrical and mechanical engineering, physical sciences (including chemistry, material sciences, and physics), mathematical sciences (including big data analytics, operations research, and optimization), public sector and business sciences (including urban policy and analytics, social technologies, learning systems and cognitive computing), and Service Science, Management, and Engineering (SSME), and industry solutions (healthcare, life sciences, education, energy & environment, retail and financial services).

Focus areas include the following topics of particular interest:

Hybrid Cloud
Quantum Computing / Quantum Systems
Artificial Intelligence
Cloud / Open Source Technologies
Security / Cyber Security
Data Science
Systems

IBM PhD Fellowship Awards Program Eligibility

Students must be nominated by a doctoral faculty member and enrolled full-time in a college or university Ph.D. program. The faculty member is encouraged to contact an IBM colleague prior to submitting the nomination to assure mutual interest.
Students from Europe and Russia may be nominated in their first year of study in their doctoral program.
Outside of Europe and Russia, students must have completed at least one year of study in their doctoral program at the time of their nomination.
Students from U.S. 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.
While students may accept other supplemental fellowships, to be eligible for the IBM Ph.D. Fellowship Award they may not accept a major award in addition to the IBM Ph.D. Fellowship.

Selection Criteria:

Preference will be given to students who have had an IBM internship or have closely collaborated with technical or services people from IBM.
The IBM Ph.D. Fellowship Awards program also supports our long-standing commitment to workforce diversity. IBM values diversity in the workplace and encourages nominations of women, minorities and all who contribute to that diversity.

Value and Duration of Fellowship:

US country awards: $60,000 in award year one; $35,000 in award year two
Other country awards: vary between $6,000-$25,000 each award year depending on country
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.