IBM Academic Awards Program

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.

Nomination for the award program is by invitation only. Nominating faculty must submit thoroughly developed proposals, remain engaged during the vetting and due diligence process, and use the university domain email address for all correspondence.

All nominees

• Must be nominated by a doctoral faculty member; students cannot nominate themselves.
• Must be enrolled full-time in a PhD program over the academic year of the award or forfeit the fellowship.
• Should be within two years of their estimated graduation date at the time of the nomination.
• That are from U.S. embargoed countries or attending institutions located in U.S. embargoed countries are not eligible for the program.
• Receiving a comparable fellowship or support from another company or institution (except for academic scholarships) during the IBM PhD Fellowship funding period are ineligible for this award. IBM reserves the right to revoke nominee’s eligibility and withdraw the funding of the PhD award upon knowledge of such award.
• Must stay in the same program for the duration of the award —no transferring of departments or schools.

Awardees will be selected based upon

• Their potential for research excellence. All awardees will have an IBM mentor for the duration of the award period and are strongly encouraged to intern during the year of their award. The internship is not guaranteed or mandatory. All student visas must align with terms of the internship.
• The degree to which the nomineesʼ research aligns with IBM focus areas.
• Academic standing, publications, and endorsements from faculty advisors and department heads.

Nominating faculty must submit thoroughly developed proposals, remain engaged during the vetting and due diligence process, and use the university domain email address for all correspondence.

Questions? Please review the FAQ’s section below before applying at the IBM Fellowship Awards nomination portal or contacting phdfellow@us.ibm.com.

IBM PhD Fellowships are awarded worldwide. The value of the awards varies by the country in which the university is located.

Awards for universities in the United States are $40,000.

Awards for other countries vary between $6,000 and $25,000.

Must I be a citizen of the country of application to qualify?

• No, however, IBM may solicit local country residency and citizenship information for legal compliance purposes as part of the award process. IBM is a US headquartered company and complies with all applicable laws and regulations.

Am I eligible if I hold more than one fellowship/scholarship/internship during the award period?

• Students receiving a comparable fellowship or support from another company or institution (does not include academic scholarships) during the same IBM funded academic period are ineligible for an IBM PhD Fellowship. IBM reserves the right to revoke nominee’s eligibility and withdraw the funding of the PhD award upon knowledge of such award.
• Please contact phdfellow@us.ibm.com with any questions.

Where can I get the forms for an IBM PhD Fellowship nomination?

• During the nomination period, faculty that have received invitations may submit their nomination for the IBM PhD Fellowship via the IBM Fellowship Awards nomination portal.

What preparation is necessary before a faculty member fills out an application?

• Once access to the application is made, the application must be filled out in one session.

• PhD Nominee information

  • Name, Department, Academic or professional website, phone, university name, country, entry date into the program, expected graduation date, current completed degree.
  • Visa status if applicable, or U.S. citizen.
  • Google Scholar publications and citations, latest completed degree, career goal (professional researcher, professor, etc.).
  • Interest in an IBM internship, list of all IBM activities (communities, sponsored collaborations, activities, conferences, courses, internships, presentations, events, promotions, products, services, etc.) with which the student has engaged).
  • Student Curriculum Vitae (CV) — limit three pages.
  • PhD Project or Dissertation Title, with a description (2,000 characters or less) that should be organized into sections: Research Question or Hypothesis, Methodology Summary, and Analysis.

• Faculty Advisor Information

  • Name, University, Department, Title, Professional/Academic Website that ties you to the university, phone, university email, university street address, country.
  • Include an answer to, “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.

• Department Head Information

  • Name, Dept, email, phone number.
  • Short supporting statement that is customized to the student and not a boilerplate recommendation.

• University Administrator Information

  • Names and email of university administrator that process donations to the university; also university officials with signatory capacity.
  • Privacy and Consent Statements for Faculty, Nominee, Department Head, and University Administrator. Once you gather all the information, and access the form, follow all the instructions. You will be allowed to cut and paste text into text fields. Stay away from highly formatted source material, .txt work the best.

What happens after I submit the form?

• The application is then put through a rigorous vetting process. You will send and receive information through your provided email address, which must contain a university domain address. If the nominated student is notified that they are being considered for an award, the faculty member must stay engaged to provide all due diligence material and documentation necessary to finalize the award.

What information does a student have to submit?

• A student does not submit any nomination or documentation to IBM; only faculty may nominate students. Students are encouraged to provide preparation material to the nominating faculty member. See the list of application contents under the FAQ, “What preparation is necessary before a faculty member fills out an application?”

What are the effective dates of the 2025 PhD Fellowship?

• The 2025 IBM PhD Fellowship covers the Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 semesters. The associated internship may be a summer 2026 assignment, or an on-site assignment during the academic year, depending on the arrangements made between the awardee, the IBM mentor, and the faculty advisor.

Can an IBM employee or IBM contractor nominate a PhD student for an IBM PhD Fellowship award?

• IBM employees, IBM supplemental employees and IBM contractors may not submit IBM PhD Fellowship nominations.

Can an IBM employee be nominated for an IBM PhD Fellowship?

• IBM employees are not eligible to be nominated for an IBM PhD Fellowship.

Is the internship mandatory?

• The internship is not guaranteed or mandatory, but IBM PhD Fellowship awardees are highly encouraged to apply for an internship position. Many IBM PhD Fellowship interns tell us that the internships help them to understand the industrial research, development or consulting services environments better, which then helps them in making better career decisions. It also broadens their technical network and strengthens their technical experience.

How are IBM PhD Fellowship recipients selected?

• Award recipients will be selected based on their overall potential for research excellence, the degree to which their technical interests align with those of the IBM focus areas listed in the call, and their progress to-date, as evidenced by publications and endorsements from their faculty advisor and department head.

How will I know if my Nominee is awarded an IBM PhD Fellowship?

• Award recipients will be finalized in 4Q 2025. A formal letter of congratulations will be sent to the award winners, but finalization of the award is contingent upon the faculty member engaging with IBM to complete all required due diligence documentation.

How do I find out about the use of my personal data?

• Information provided in the IBM PhD Fellowship application is used only to vet your application. The faculty member will be given an opportunity to consent to a privacy policy, and all nominees will also be asked to return a consent as well. Privacy is of utmost importance to us and records are retained as applicable to U.S. Tax regulations. To learn more about IBM's data privacy, read the IBM Fellowship Awards Privacy statement. For a particular inquiry please send an email to: phdfellow@us.ibm.com

What are the award payment documentation requirements for IBM PhD Fellowship Awardees?

• Please note, because IBM PhD Fellowship awards to students are governed by US charitable giving rules and regulations, the recipient institutions will be required to provide additional documentation, e.g. bank statement, proof of non-profit / charitable organization status, IRS Form W-9/W-8.

How and when are payments made?

• The IBM PhD Fellowship payments are sent to the university no later than the last quarter of the year. The timing of the payment depends heavily on the engagement of the nominator and the university in returning all documentation expeditiously. Awards are payable to the university or foundation, not directly to the student awardee. All nominations must include contact information for a university finance administrator for the department (designated in the nomination form by the faculty advisor) who can confirm details for payment.

What follow-ups occur with IBM PhD Fellowship program?

• The IBM PhD Fellowship program may survey, arrange an outcomes call, or engage with the awardee’s mentor, the awardee, or the faculty for updates. The results and feedback are used to improve the program.

As a nominated candidate how do I gain access to the information provided by the faculty?

• You may request a copy of the submitted nomination form from the faculty who submitted the nomination.

What if I have more questions?

• For questions not addressed here or on the program tab above, send an email to phdfellow@us.ibm.com.

2024

• Andi Gu - Harvard University, United States
• Chi Han - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, United States
• Chulin Xie - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, United States
• Eli Orvis - University of Colorado Boulder, United States
• Eshaan Nichani - Princeton University, United States
• Gang Liu - University of Notre Dame du Lac, United States
• Hao-Yu Lan - Purdue University, United States
• Karthik Valmeekam - Arizona State University, United States
• Komal Sarda - York University, Canada
• Maico Cassel dos Santos - Columbia University in the City of New York, United States
• Mohammed Nowaz Rabbani Chowdhury - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, United States
• Natalie Collina - University of Pennsylvania, United States
• Pranjali Jain - University of California, Santa Barbara, United States
• Quynh Nguyen - Harvard University, United States
• Rock Yuren Pang - University of Washington, United States
• Ryotaro Okabe - Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States
• Sabee Grewal - University of Texas at Austin, United States
• Shangbin Feng - University of Washington, United States
• Simret Gebreegziabher - University of Notre Dame du Lac, United States
• Terry Yue Zhuo - Monash University, Austrailia
• Vasisht Duddu - University of Waterloo, Canada
• Xella Doi - University of Chicago, United States
• Yeonju Ro - University of Texas at Austin, United States
• Yihua Zhang - Michigan State University, United States

2023

• Sajant Anand - University of California-Berkeley, United States
• Yonggan Fu - Georgia Institute of Technology, United States
• Tianyu Gao - Princeton University, United States
• Grace Guo - Georgia Institute of Technology, United States
• Ankita Gupta - University of Massachusetts at Amherst, United States
• Taylor Olson - Northwestern University, United States
• Megha Srivastava - Stanford University, United States
• Lixu Wang - Northwestern University, United States
• Zhanghao Wu - University of California-Berkeley, United States
• Lijun Zhang - University of Massachusetts at Amherst, United States

2022

• Ishtiyaque Ahmad - University of California, Santa Barbara, United States
• Lauren Alvarez - North Carolina State University, United States
• Akari Asai - University of Washington, United States
• Fabia Athena - Georgia Institute of Technology, United States
• Yufeng Bright Ye - Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States
• Zana Bucinca - Harvard University, United States
• Catherine Chen - University of California, Berkeley, United States
• Ka Ho Chow - Georgia Institute of Technology, United States
• Ching-Yao Chuang - Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States
• Cora Coleman - University of California, San Diego, United States
• Sam Cree - Stanford University, United States
• Yangruibo Ding - Columbia University in the City of New York, United States
• Zexue He - University of California, San Diego, United States
• Surbhi Mittal - Indian Institute of Technology IIT Jodhpur, India
• Yongmo Park - University of Michigan-AnnArbor, United States
• Charvi Rastogi - Carnegie Mellon University, United States
• Stefan Sack - Institute of Science and Technology Austria, Austria
• Fangzheng Xu - Carnegie Mellon University, United States
• Bo Zhang - Columbia University in the City of New York, United States

2021

• Ahmed Alquraan - University of Waterloo, Canada
• Syrine Belakaria, Washington State University, United States
• Eyal Ben-David - Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Israel
• Tianlong Chen - University of Texas at Austin, United States
• Shehzaad Dhuliawala - ETHZ - Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Switzerland
• Scott Freitas - Georgia Institute of Technology, United States
• Uma Girish - Princeton University, United States
• Gabriel Gusmao - Georgia Institute of Technology, United States
• Geraud Nangue Tasse - Wits University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
• Vikram Narayanan - University of California-Irvine, United States
• Simbarashe Nyatsanga - University of California-Davis, United States
• Soyun Park - Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States
• Abhairaj Singh - Technische Universiteit Delft, Netherlands
• Yudai Suzuki - Keio University, Japan
• Silvana Trindade - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brazil
• Pheona Williams - Howard University, United States

2020

• Amani Ahmad Al-Ahmadi - King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
• Atri Bhattacharyya - EPFL - Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Switzerland
• Stanley Alex Breitweiser - University of Pennsylvania, United States
• Lijie Chen - Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States
• Yueqi Chen - Penn State University, United States
• Andrew Cullen - Imperial College of Science Technology Medicine London, United Kingdom
• Alessandro de Palma - University of Oxford, United Kingdom
• Leon Ding - Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States
• Wenbo Guo - Penn State University, United States
• Michael Hersche - ETHZ - Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Switzerland
• Andy Huynh - Boston University, United States
• Saurabh Jha - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States
• Jungo Kasai - University of Washington, Seattle, United States
• Corey Lammie - James Cook University, Australia
• Theodor Lundberg - University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
• Sujaya Maiyya - University of California, Santa Barbara, United States
• Prakash Murali - Princeton University, United States
• Jonas Pfeiffer - Technische Universitat Darmstadt, Germany
• Sharon Qian - Harvard University. United States
• Nidhi Rathi - Indian Institute of Science, India
• Eddie Schoute - University of Maryland, College Park, United States
• Eli Schwartz - Tel Aviv University,Israel
• Arthur Selle Jacobs - Universidade Federal do Rio, Grande do Sul, Brazil
• Gunjan Singh - Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, India

2019

• Manaar Alam - Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Charlotte Boettcher - Harvard University
• Junyu Cao - University of California, Berkeley
• Ignacio Cases - Stanford University
• Timon Gehr - ETHZ - Federal Institute of Technology Zuric
• Dennis Grishin - Harvard University
• Vojtech Havlicek - University of Oxford
• Kei Kase - Waseda University
• Marios Kogias - EPFL - Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne
• Song Liu - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
• Ellis Michael - University of Washington, Seattle
• Nikolaos Papadis - Yale University
• Anupam Sanghi - Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
• Stacey Truex - Georgia Institute of Technology
• Ellen Vitercik - Carnegie Mellon University
• Pengcheng Yin - Carnegie Mellon University

2018

• Zakaria Aldeneh - University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
• Sarath Chandar Anbil Parthipan - University of Montreal
• Saikrishna Badrinarayanan - University of California, Los Angeles
• Maynard Marshall Ball - Columbia University
• Shang-Tse Chen - Georgia Institute of Technology
• Michael Coblenz - Carnegie Mellon University
• Snigdha Das - Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Hagit Grushka-Cohen - Ben-Gurion University
• Rishab Goyal - University of Texas at Austin
• Josiah Hanna - University of Texas at Austin
• Yining Hu - University of New South Wales
• Amir Kafshdar Goharshady - Institute of Science and Technology Austria
• Eleftherios Kokoris-Kogias - EPFL - Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne
• Chun-Liang Li - Carnegie Mellon University
• Tongyang Li - University of Maryland, College Park
• Chaoxuan Ma - University of California, San Diego
• Clemens Rosenbaum - University of Massachusetts, Amherst
• Sailik Sengupta - Arizona State University
• Chad Spensky - University of California, Santa Barbara
• Hasini Urala Liyanage Dona Gunasinghe - Purdue University
• Gary Yeung - University of California, Los Angeles
• Fan Zhang - Cornell University
• Huan Zhang - University of California, Davis

2017

• Iftekhar Ahmed - Oregon State University
• Umair Ahmed - Indian Institute of Technology - IIT Kanpur
• Khalid Al Khatib - Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
• Arturs Backurs - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Radu Baltean-Lugojan - Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London
• Sarah Adel Bargal - Boston University
• Maruf Bhuiyan - Yale University
• Tathagata Chakraborti - Arizona State University
• Michael Coblenz - Carnegie Mellon University
• Gal Dalal - Technion, Israel Institute of Technology
• Jose Manuel del Pino Fernández - Universidad Europea de Madrid
• Tesca Fitzgerald - Georgia Institute of Technology
• Shruti Gandhi - North Carolina State University
• Badih Ghazi - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Ahmed Elgohary Ghoneim - University of Maryland College Park
• Hagit Grushka-Cohen - Ben-Gurion University
• Hui Guan - North Carolina State University
• Zhiting Hu - Carnegie Mellon University
• Oana Inel - Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
• Cristina Kadar - ETHZ - Federal Institute of Technology Zürich
• Elias Khalil - Georgia Institute of Technology
• Eleftherios Kokoris-Kogias - EPFL - Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne
• Jie Liu - Lehigh University
• Pengfei Liu - Fudan University
• Huoran Li - Peking University
• Jiajia Li - Georgia Institute of Technology
• Eduardo Luz - Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto
• Lingjuan Lyu - University of Melbourne
• Keisuke Maeda - Hokkaido University
• Pascal Nieters - Universität Osnabrück
• Sikhar Patranabis - Indian Institute of Technology - IIT Kharagpur
• Liat Peterfreund - Technion, Israel Institute of Technology
• Max Plauth - Universität Potsdam
• Neelam Prabhu Gaunkar - Iowa State University
• Ankur Sarker - University of Virginia
• Nandakumar Sasidharan Rajalekshmi - New Jersey Institute of Technology
• Neha Sengupta - Indian Institute of Technology - IIT Delhi
• Sonia Soubam - Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi (IIIT-D)
• Emma Strubell - University of Massachusetts at Amherst
• Harish Sukhwani - Duke University
• Uttam Thakore - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Michael Võssing - Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
• Robert Walecki - Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London
• Yichen Wang - Georgia Institute of Technology
• Zhe Wan - University of California-Los Angeles
• Yong Yang - Peking University
• Jialun Yin - Tsinghua University
• Theodore Yoder - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Wenting Zheng - University of California-Berkeley
• Shuo Zhou - University of Melbourne

2016

• Iftekhar Ahmed - Oregon State University
• Jun Araki - Carnegie Mellon University
• Arturs Backurs - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Masoud Badiei Khuzani - Harvard University
• Mossaab Bagdouri - University of Maryland College Park
• Silvina Caino - Universidad Carlos III de Madrid - University Carlos III, Madrid
• William Candela - Pontifícia Universidade Católica
• Dai Wang-Zhou - Nanjing University
• David Dov - Technion, Israel Institute of Technology
• Anca Dumitrache - Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam - Vrije University, Amsterdam
• Anca Dumitrache - Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam - Vrije University, Amsterdam
• Glauber Gonçalves - Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
• Nanbo Gong - Yale University
• Soehnke Grams - Universität Koblenz-Landau - University of Koblenz-Landau
• Hui Guan - North Carolina State University
• Jia Tong - Peking University
• Mark Law - Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London
• Changchang Liu - Princeton University
• Bernhard Loitsch - Technische Universität München - Technical University of Munich
• Mario Lucic - ETHZ - Federal Institute of Technology Zürich
• Suman Kalyan Maity - Indian Institute of Technology - IIT Kharagpur
• Lee Martie - University of California-Irvine
• Kuldeep Meel - Rice University
• Mahya Mirzaei Poueinag - University of Technology, Sydney
• Tanushree Mitra - Georgia Institute of Technology
• Thien Nguyen - New York University
• Deepak Mishra - Indian Institute of Technology - IIT Delhi
• Gianluca Panici - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Sikhar Patranabis - Indian Institute of Technology - IIT Kharagpur
• Bruno Umbria Pedroni - University of California-San Diego
• Alexander Ponomarenko - Higher School of Economics
• Neelam Prabhu Gaukar - Iowa State University
• Cosmin Radoi - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Mrinmaya Sachan - Carnegie Mellon University
• Joshua San Miguel - University of Toronto
• Thomas Schlegl - Medizinische Universität Wien - Medical University of Vienna
• Neha Sengupta - Indian Institute of Technology - IIT Delhi
• Ioannis Sfakianakis - University of Crete, Heraklion
• Sonia Soubam - Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi (IIIT-D)
• Christian Stab - Technische Universitãt Darmstadt - Technical University of Darmstadt
• Harish Sukhwani - Duke University
• Pailla Tejaswy - University of California-San Diego
• Shay Vargaftik Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
• Michael Võssing - Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
• Tim Waizenegger - Universitãt Stuttgart - University of Stuttgart
• Sean Wilner - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Christine Wolf - University of California-Irvine
• Bin Xu - Cornell University
• Jialun Yin - Tsinghua University
• Noga Zaslavsky - Hebrew University
• Xiao Zhang - Xi'an Jiaotong University
• Rong Zhu - Harbin Institute of Technology