Beckman fellowships and awards
The Beckman Institute offers several fellowships and awards that support research opportunities for scholars at the undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral levels. From summer research opportunities to three-year fellowships, all provide critical research experience for the recipients. In addition, their contributions support Beckman’s research and teaching missions. The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, as well as other scholarship and memorial funds provided by generous donors, support these programs.
Beckman Institute Graduate Fellows Program
The Beckman Institute Graduate Fellows Program offers University of Illinois graduate students at the M.A., M.S., or Ph.D. level the opportunity to pursue interdisciplinary research at the institute. The program is supported by funding from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation. (See more graduate student opportunities below.)
Applications for Beckman Institute Graduate Fellowships for 2020-21 are now open with a deadline of 5 p.m. CST Tuesday, March 10, 2020.
Beckman Institute Postdoctoral Fellows Program
The Beckman Institute has three postdoctoral fellow programs (although not all of them are awarded each year).
The Beckman Institute Postdoctoral Fellows Program is intended for recent Ph.D. recipients or students in their final year of doctoral study with research interests relevant to the Beckman Institute. Four to six fellows are selected annually for terms of up to three years. The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation established this program in 1991 to recruit outstanding scientists to work at the Beckman Institute.
The Carle Foundation Hospital-Beckman Institute Postdoctoral Fellows Program recruits outstanding scientists to work on translational biomedical research. Begun in 2008 with funding from Carle Foundation Hospital, one or two fellows are selected about every three years.
The Beckman-Brown Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Fellows Program is intended for recent Ph.D. recipients or students in their final year of doctoral study with research interests relevant to the Beckman Institute. One Beckman-Brown Interdisciplinary Fellow is selected annually. Initiated in the fall of 2015, the fellowship honors Dr. and Mrs. Arnold Beckman and Dr. Theodore “Ted” Brown, the founding director of the Beckman Institute. The award is funded by an endowment established by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation.
Applications for Beckman Institute Postdoctoral Fellowships for 2020 are no longer being accepted.
Senior Fellows Program
The program is by invitation only. Since 2003, the Senior Fellows Program gives established faculty members from other universities the opportunity to do short-term, on-site, interdisciplinary research with other Beckman Institute researchers.
Other donor-supported awards and fellowships
The Beckman Undergraduate Fellows Program offers up to five promising University of Illinois undergraduate students the opportunity to pursue interdisciplinary research at the institute during the summer with a $3,000 award. The program is supported by funding from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation.
Carle Neuroscience Institute Undergraduate Research Award
The Carle Neuroscience Institute Undergraduate Research Award allows two promising undergraduates to pursue research in magnetic resonance neuroimaging at the Beckman Institute during the summer with a $3,000 award.
Carle Neuroscience
Award recipients
Erik Haferkamp Memorial Award for Undergraduate Research
The Erik Haferkamp Memorial Award for Undergraduate Research allows a promising undergraduate neuroscientist to pursue research at the Beckman Institute during the summer with a $3,000 award. The award is supported by friends and family in memory of Erik Haferkamp.
Nadine Barrie Smith Memorial Fellows Program
The Nadine Barrie Smith Memorial Fellows Program provides up to two $4,000 fellowships for female engineering graduate students who are conducting research in the general field of medical imaging (e.g., ultrasound, optical, magnetic resonance) at the Beckman Institute. Preference shall be given to students from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Thomas and Margaret Huang Award for Graduate Research
The Thomas and Margaret Huang Award for Graduate Research supports one to two graduate students in the broad area of human-computer intelligent interaction, including research in computer vision, image compression and processing, pattern recognition, multimodal signal processing, human perception and performance, and artificial intelligence at the Beckman Institute. One to two awards are presented annually. The $3,500 award is supported by the Huang Fund.
Recipients of previous awards:
- Cognition, Lifespan Engagement, Aging and Resilience Awards
- Neurotechnology for Memory and Cognition Awards
- Janssen Family Undergraduate Research Award