Pappalardo Fellowships Competition
2025-2028 Pappalardo Fellowships Competition
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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. 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 2025-2026 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
- opportunity to participate in an MIT-sponsored health insurance plan.
NOMINATION FORM: 2025-2028 Pappalardo Fellowships competition.
Nomination period closing tonight at 11:59 PM, Friday, September 6, 2024
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 2025-2028 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, 2025. 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 2025-2028 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 2025-2028 MIT Pappalardo Fellowships in Physics competition.
Faculty nominators, please note:
- 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.
- The faculty nominator’s letter of reference is not submitted along with the nomination form on the MIT Physics web site. Rather, you will upload your letter directly to the 2025-2028 MIT Pappalardo Competition’s secure portal on the academicjobsonline.com (AJO) host site, after your nominee has submitted your 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.
Competition Schedule
Early August 2024 |
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Friday, |
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Friday, |
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Mid- to Late November 2024 |
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Thursday, DECEMBER 12 and Friday, DECEMBER 13, 2024 |
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Week of Monday, December 16 to Friday, December 20, 2024 |
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Monday, JANUARY 6, 2025 (Date to be confirmed.) |
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2025-2028 Applicant Information
All finalist interviews for the 2025-2028 Pappalardo Fellowships will be held in person on the MIT campus in Cambridge, MA, on Thursday, December 12, 2024, and Friday, December 13, 2024.
Committed candidates are strongly advised to reserve these dates in their calendars.
As nominations are received from candidates’ faculty supervisors, each nominee will be emailed the private code allowing access to the 2025-2028 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 4, 2024. [Midnight = Friday/Saturday]
Applicants themselves are responsible for ensuring that all of the following items are submitted to the 2025-2028 Pappalardo Fellowships portal on academicjobsonline.org by the deadline:
- Name, title, institute affiliation, address, cell phone number, area of physics.
- Curriculum vitae
- List of publications
- 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.]
- Three letters (no more, no less) of recommendation, each letter written by a single referee, i.e., no ‘co-authored’ letters. Note that 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 2025-2028 term run from September 1, 2025, through August 31, 2028.
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