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 IBM PhD Fellowship Awards Program is an intensely competitive worldwide program, which honors exceptional PhD students who want to make their mark in promising and disruptive technologies.
To be eligible for nomination, the student must
· be enrolled full-time in a PhD program over the two consecutive academic years of the award or forfeit the fellowship.
· must have three years remaining in their program at the time of nomination so the fellowship can be applied to the last two years of study.
· stay in the same program at the same institution for the duration of the award.
Students from U.S. embargoed countries are not eligible for the program. Students receiving a comparable fellowship, internship, or support from another company or institution during the IBM PhD Fellowship funding period are not eligible for this award.
Faculty are invited to submit nominations to megrad@umd.edu by October 20th. Please adhere to character limits and submit materials in a single PDF file to the Graduate School Awards Portal.
Please carefully review the IBM PhD Fellowship website for more information.
Required Materials
1. Student’s CV (3-page limit)
2. Details about Student Research (2000 character limit):
Group and enumerate responses into these mandatory sections:
· Research Question or Hypothesis
· Methodology
· Analysis Strategy
· Impact of potential results, and any risks or challenges
Include an answers to these questions:
What would be the impact if work was not conducted?
Why did the student select this field of study and line of inquiry?
3. Faculty Nomination Letter / Student Evaluation (1000 character limit):
Include the Following:
· Name, University, Department, Title, Professional/Academic Website that ties you to the university, phone, university email, university street address, country.
· Answer to this question: “There are many Fellowship programs available to students. Tell us what prompted you to nominate this student for the IBM PhD Fellowship Award?” Evaluation of the student and list of personal attributes, accolades or awards.
· If possible, provide the name of an IBM Colleague and the manner of acquaintance.
4. Special considerations, if any (1000 character limit):
Faculty written statement that itemizes any special considerations such as personal attributes, other accomplishments, etc. Be sure to include any IBM-specific or sponsored collaborations, activities, conferences, courses, internships, presentations, events, promotions, products, services, etc. with which the student has engaged. Let us know what the student is thinking about for their career: Professor and/or Researcher at a University? Corporate/Professional Researcher? Professional Researcher at an Institution or Government Lab? Something else?
5. Department head’s supporting statement:
Please prepare the letter on the Department letterhead and include name, department, and email address. This should be a short supporting statement that is customized to the student and not a boilerplate recommendation. The letter can compare recent graduates and specify the nominee’s overall department standing. It can provide the Student’s GPA. (Ex: 3.5 out of 4.0.) and any differentiating metrics such as the student’s Google Scholar Rank/number of citations. ORCID number, and/or h-index.