Pappalardo Fellowships Competition

2026-2029 Pappalardo Fellowships Competition

• Program Overview
• Call for Nominations
• Competition Schedule
• 2026-2029 Applicant Information

Pappalardo Fellowships Program Overview

The mission of the MIT Pappalardo Fellowships in Physics is to sustain a distinguished postdoctoral program that identifies, recruits and supports the most talented and promising young physicists at an early stage in their careers. This initiative is made possible by the support of Mr. A. Neil Pappalardo (EE ’64), an MIT alumnus with a long history of generosity to both the Institute and the Department of Physics.

Each year, the program typically appoints three new Fellows for a three-year term each, via its annual competition. Each fellowship appointment runs from September 1, 2026, through August 31, 2029; alternative appointment dates will not be available. All Pappalardo Fellows are provided with:

• independent, unrestricted choice of research focus and direction within the MIT Department of Physics, throughout the three-year fellowship appointment;
• active faculty mentoring fostered by weekly luncheons and monthly dinners with the Department’s faculty, throughout the academic year;
• a competitive annual stipend for first-year Fellows in the 2026-2029 academic year, with annual cost of-living increases for the remaining two years, combined with $15,000 per academic year in untaxed, discretionary research funds; and
• the opportunity to participate in an MIT-sponsored health insurance plan.

The Executive Committee of the MIT Pappalardo Fellowships in Physics invites faculty and senior researchers within the international community of physics, astronomy or related fields to submit nominations for the 2026-2029 MIT Pappalardo Fellowships in Physics competition.

Nominees must be young physicists of exceptional ability at the beginning of their careers, who currently have or will have received a doctoral degree in physics, astronomy or related fields by September 1, 2026. Nominations are submitted online using the link, below.

Candidates are traditionally nominated by their faculty research supervisor, as the person most familiar with the quality of the candidate’s work. Candidates cannot self-nominate.

After a verified faculty nomination has been received, the Pappalardo Fellowships office will email the nominee an access code to the private 2026-2029 MIT Pappalardo Fellowships web locker hosted on academicjobsonline.org (AJO).

Our private locker on the AJO site is where all required applicant materials (including the three referee letters) must be submitted for Committee faculty to review.

We thank you for participating in the 2026-2029 MIT Pappalardo Fellowships in Physics competition.

Faculty nominators, please note:

1. Candidates must be nominated by a faculty member or senior researcher in physics, astronomy or related fields. Candidates are traditionally nominated by their faculty research supervisor, as the person most familiar with the quality of the candidate’s work. Candidates cannot self-nominate.
2. The faculty nominator’s letter of reference is not submitted along with the nomination form on the MIT Physics web site. Rather, the faculty nominator will upload their letter directly to the 2026-2029 MIT Pappalardo Competition’s secure portal on the academicjobsonline.com (AJO) host site, once their nominee has logged into AJO and submitted the nominator’s name.
3. Current MIT graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, or those who have already received an offer for a postdoctoral position from an MIT faculty member, will only be considered under highly exceptional circumstances.

Competition Schedule

Late July 2025	Call-for-Nominations opens, and submissions made online via the 2026-2029 Pappalardo Fellowships Nomination Form link, above. As nominations are received from faculty supervisors, each student nominee will be emailed instructions from the MIT Pappalardo Fellowships office, along with a code to allow access to the private 2026-2029 Pappalardo Fellowships web portal on academicjobsonline.org (AJO). All required applicant materials (including the three referee letters) must be submitted via this AJO portal for review by the Committee faculty.
Friday, SEPTEMBER 5, 2025	NOMINATION DEADLINE. Candidates must be nominated by a faculty member or senior researcher in physics, astronomy or related fields: candidates cannot self-nominate. Nominations are typically submitted by a candidate’s faculty research supervisor. The faculty nominator’s letter of reference is not submitted along with the nomination form on the MIT Physics web site. Rather, faculty will upload the letter directly to the 2026-2029 MIT Pappalardo Competition’s secure portal on the academicjobsonline.com (AJO) host site, after their nominee has submitted the faculty nominator’s name on our private AJO web locker. Current MIT graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, or those who have already received an offer for a postdoctoral position from an MIT faculty member, will only be considered under highly exceptional circumstances.
Friday, OCTOBER 3, 2025, Midnight (EST) [Midnight = Friday/Saturday]	Application Materials Deadline for Candidates (including the three referee letters) to submit all required items to the competition’s private web locker on AJO. Candidates are emailed the code to access the 2026-2029 Pappalardo Fellowships web locker on AJO. This is where all required applicant materials must be submitted for review by Committee faculty.
Early to Mid- November 2025	The selected finalists will be notified individually via email, and given the assigned date and time of their interview with the Committee. Remaining candidates, including designated alternates, will also be notified via private email.
Thursday, DECEMBER 11, and Friday, DECEMBER 12, 2025	Finalist interviews for the 2026-2029 Pappalardo Fellowships will be hosted either via Zoom for non-domestic finalists who are located a six-hour or longer flight from Boston, MA, USA, or, in person on the MIT campus in Cambridge, MA, USA, for North American/Western European-based locations (within a five hour or shorter flight from Boston, MA, USA). Please note that committed candidates are strongly encouraged to reserve the finalist interview dates in their calendars, as alternative dates are not available.
Week of Monday, December 15, to Friday, December 19, 2025	Fellowship offers extended via individual email. Fellowship alternates and remaining finalists notified via individual email.
(Date to be confirmed.)	Decision deadline for 2026-2029 Pappalardo Fellowships first-round offers.

2026-2029 Applicant Information

Finalist interviews for the 2026-2029 Pappalardo Fellowships will be hosted either via Zoom for non-domestic
finalists who are located a six-hour or longer flight from Boston, MA, USA, or, in person on the MIT campus in
Cambridge, MA, USA, for North American/Western European-based locations (within a five hour or shorter
flight from Boston, MA, USA). Please note that committed candidates are strongly encouraged to reserve the
finalist interview dates in their calendars, as alternative dates are not available.

Committed candidates are strongly encouraged to reserve the finalist interview dates in their calendars, as alternative dates are not available.

As nominations are received from candidates’ faculty supervisors, each nominee will be emailed the private code allowing access to the 2026-2029 MIT Pappalardo Fellowships private web locker on academicjobsonline.org (AJO). This is where all required applicant materials (including the three referee letters) must be submitted for review by the Committee faculty.

ALL required application materials must be posted by candidates and their faculty referees to
academicjobsonline.org by Midnight (EST) on FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2025. [Midnight = Friday/
Saturday]

Applicants themselves are responsible for ensuring that all of the following items are submitted to the 2026-2029 Pappalardo Fellowships portal on academicjobsonline.org by the deadline:

1. Name, title, institute affiliation, address, cell phone number, area of physics.
2. Curriculum vitae
3. List of publications
4. Essay detailing proposed research during a Pappalardo Fellowship [Important: Faculty reviewers stipulate a maximum length of two-pages, single-sided, using an 11 or 12 point font size and 1.5 or double spacing for optimal legibility for the multiple faculty readers. References and graphics are not necessary, but if included, should be contained within this two-page limit.]
5. Three letters (no more, no less) of recommendation, each letter written by a single referee, i.e., NO ‘co-authored’ letters. One of these three letters would typically be from the applicant’s faculty nominator.

Please review the Competition Schedule above for a summary of essential dates and deadlines.

The Pappalardo Fellowships in Physics appointments for the 2026-2029 term run from September 1, 2026,
through August 31, 2029. Alternative appointment periods are not available.

Questions

Should you need clarification on any of the above, please email:

Ms. Carol Breen
Communications & Pappalardo Fellowships Program Administrator
MIT Department of Physics
breen@mit.edu