NSF initiates postdoctoral fellowship program for engineers

The U.S. National Science Foundation has funded a new $18.4 million Engineering Fellows program. The program will provide support to recent engineering doctoral graduates for two-year postdoctoral fellowship positions at U.S. academic institutions.

The Engineering Fellows program will provide diverse early-career engineers with academic research experience, boost their connections to engineering scholars, and prepare them to navigate the challenging job market resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The NSF Engineering Fellows program will help ensure that bright, early-career engineers can stay on a path to academic research and teaching, despite the pandemic and economic uncertainty," said Dawn Tilbury, NSF assistant director for Engineering. "NSF recognizes that individuals and institutions are facing different circumstances and challenges, and we want to provide opportunities that will support them and the future engineering needs of our nation."

NSF funding will support two 30-person cohorts of diverse early-career engineers beginning in fall 2021. NSF encourages people from groups underrepresented in engineering to apply; these groups include but are not limited to women, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders, first-generation college graduates, veterans and people with disabilities.

The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) will administer the program and evaluate program outcomes. ASEE is accepting applications for the first Engineering Fellows cohort from June 21 through July 6, 2021. For more information, please visit https://efellows.asee.org/. 

The Engineering Fellows are funded through an award from the NSF Broadening Participation in Engineering program in the Division of Engineering Education and Centers.