NEW FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITIES AT NSF | IEEE Information Theory Society

In these difficult economic times, CISE recognizes the importance of attracting and retaining talented young individuals in the computing research and education enterprise. We need your help in ensuring that the increased investments we are planning to make in PEOPLE have optimal impact:

New Ph.D. Graduates: Like you, we are concerned that the young men and women graduating with PhDs in computing fields this year will have more limited research career opportunities, as new faculty openings in academe and new research positions in industry are currently few in number. Thus, through a new $15M award to the Computing Research Association (CRA) and the Computing Community Consortium (CCC), we are sponsoring the Computing Innovation Fellows (CIFellows) project, to support the appointments of up to 60 CIFellows in colleges, universities, industrial research laboratories and other organizations dedicated to advancing computing. To be eligible to apply for CIFellows support, applicants must have completed their Ph.D.s between May 1, 2008 and August 31, 2009. Important information about the CIFellows project is available at http://cifellows.org/ .

Please note that time is of the essence -- *CIFellows applications are due to CRA by June 9, 2009* -- so share this information with colleagues and students within your institutions as soon as possible. We need to reach both potential applicants, and organizations and mentors interested in hosting CIFellows. Also, please be assured that CISE and CRA are deeply committed to ensuring that the project supports the appointments of a diverse cadre of CIFellows in a range of host organizations.

Graduate students: CISE is doubling its investments in NSF’s prestigious Graduate Research Fellowships (GRF) program this year, and with President Obama’s recently expressed commitment to triple NSF support for GRF over the coming few years, we expect to continue to increase our GRF investments in the future. To make these investments as effective as possible, we need your help in increasing the number of GRF applications NSF receives from talented young women and men interested in pursuing their graduate studies in computing.

Please encourage the promising undergraduates and first year graduate students you know and work with to submit GRF applications and provide them with the support and guidance that will ensure their applications are competitive. More information on the GRF program is available at:

http://nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=6201&org=DGE&from=home

Undergraduates: This year, CISE has increased support for Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) supplements and sites by approximately 50%, providing research stipend support for a larger number of undergraduates, some of whom may be facing financial hardship in these trying times. REU experiences have been shown to be highly effective in encouraging undergraduate students to pursue graduate studies; thus, we encourage you to always consider including undergraduate students in your research projects. More information on obtaining support from our REU program can be found at

http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5517&from=fund

We in CISE look forward to working together with our colleagues in academia and industry on the stewardship of the next generations of computing researchers, educators, and professionals. Thank you in advance for your participation and support of these efforts.

Jeannette M. Wing

CISE, Assistant Director

Subscribe to Our Mailing List