University Awards

The IBM Ph.D. Fellowship Awards is an intensely competitive program which honors exceptional Ph.D. students in many academic disciplines and areas of study, for example: computer science and engineering, electrical and mechanical engineering , physical sciences (including chemistry, material sciences, and physics), mathematical sciences (including optimization), business sciences (including financial services, communication, and learning/knowledge), and service sciences, management, and engineering. Additionally, IBM pays special attention to an array of focus areas of interest to IBM and fundamental to innovation, including but not limited to:

• Technology that creates new business value:
  Optimization, risk and compliance, business intelligence, information-based medicine, services and software to improve business performance, social networking, information-based medicine and health care management, modeling and data analysis, workforce- based supply chains, Service Science, Management and Engineering (SSME), tools for globalization
• Innovative software:
  HCI, new expressive ways of manipulating computers, programming models and tools, language understanding, ontologies, real-time system, real-world-aware systems, intelligent imbedded systems, event-driven computing, Web 2.0, 3D Internet
• New types of computers:
  Use of massive parallelism for non-scientific/engineering applications (including those applications), cell/multi-core, power management, 3D systems and integration, nanotechnology and post-CMOS devices for digital logic, memory, and communications
• Interdisciplinary projects:
  Water and energy modeling and management, management of computer centers virtualization, autonomic computing, hybrid systems, cloud computing, Internet data centers, green systems/data centers, green computing

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.

The IBM Ph.D. Fellowships are awarded worldwide. IBM Ph.D. Fellows are awarded tuition, fees, and a stipend for one nine-month academic year. Stipends vary by country/geography and the student will be informed at the time of the award what the stipend is for their country/geography. All IBM Ph.D. Fellows are matched with an IBM Mentor according to their technical interests, and they are strongly encouraged to participate in an internship at least once, while completing their studies. A ThinkPad is awarded during the internship. Internship assignments are designed to strengthen and broaden the Award Recipient's technical experience and contacts. Interns are paid by their host site and will be subject to the prevailing terms and conditions of the internship program at that site. IBM is an equal opportunity employer.

IBM Ph.D. Fellowships are awarded for one nine-month academic year. After receiving an award, an Award Recipient may be renominated the following year for consideration to receive an IBM Ph.D. Fellowship again, based on the Award Recipient's continued exceptional academic standing, progress and achievement, and sustained interaction with IBM's technical community. A student may compete annually and be awarded a maximum of three years. IBM requests that a maximum of two nominations per department be submitted in addition to any renewal nominations.

Students must be nominated by a faculty member. They must be enrolled full-time in a college or university Ph.D. program, and they must have completed at least one year of study in their doctoral program at the time of their nomination. Students from U.S. embargoed and terrorist 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 fellowship in addition to the IBM Ph.D. Fellowship.

Eligibility in Europe and Russia: Students must be nominated by a doctoral faculty member. They must be enrolled full-time in a college or university Ph.D. program, and they may be nominated in their first year of study in their doctoral program. Students from U.S. embargoed and terrorist 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 government scholarships and other supplemental fellowships, to be eligible for the IBM Ph.D. Fellowship Award they may not accept a major fellowship in addition to the IBM Ph.D. Fellowship.

For further information, see frequently asked questions or contact phdfellow@us.ibm.com.