Simons-Berkeley Research Fellowship | Call for applications

The Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing is a major international venue for collaborative research in theoretical computer science and related fields. The Institute is housed in Calvin Lab, a dedicated building on the UC Berkeley campus, and provides a vibrant and welcoming environment for visiting researchers. In each academic semester the activities of the Institute are largely focused on specific research programs, each of which attracts around sixty long-term participants ranging from senior scientists to graduate students. The Institute, created in 2012 through a ten-year grant from the Simons Foundation, opened its doors in Fall 2013 and has hosted 23 research programs in its first six years of operation.

In its seventh year, 2019-2020, the Institute will host four further research programs on the following topics: in Summer 2019, "Foundations of Deep Learning," in Fall 2019, "Proofs, Consensus, and Decentralizing Society," and in Spring 2020, "The Quantum Wave in Computing" and "Lattices: Algorithms, Complexity and Cryptography." Descriptions of these programs and other information about the Institute can be found at simons.berkeley.edu.

The Institute invites applications for Simons-Berkeley Research Fellowships for Summer 2019, Fall 2019 and Spring 2020. Simons-Berkeley Research Fellowships are intended for exceptional young scientists (within at most six years of the award of their PhD at the start of academic year 2019-2020). Applicants who already hold junior faculty or postdoctoral positions are welcome to apply. In particular, applicants who hold, or expect to hold, postdoctoral appointments at other institutions are encouraged to apply to spend the duration of one program as a Simons-Berkeley Fellow subject to the approval of the postdoctoral institution. The Institute expects to award about 30 Fellowships in 2019-2020; the majority of these are for the duration of one program (either the summer or a semester), but several appointments for consecutive programs are expected to be made. Each Fellow will normally participate in at least one of the ongoing programs at the Institute and be resident for the full program.

In addition, the Institute co-hosts joint fellowships, in which a Fellow spends a period (a summer or a semester) as a Simons-Berkeley Fellow and is also appointed to a research position at a partner institution. Partner institutions include the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton; the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Saarbrücken, Germany; the Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago; the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, and the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute at UC San Diego. Applicants interested in such a joint fellowship should submit both a Simons-Berkeley Fellow application and an application at the partner institution. For questions about positions at a partner institution, please contact that institution directly.

Salaries and benefits are competitive and assistance with visas and housing will be provided.

The Institute particularly encourages applications from women and minority candidates.

Application Instructions

Each applicant for Summer 2019, Fall 2019 or Spring 2020, or more than one of these, should prepare the following documents in a single PDF file:

  • Cover letter, briefly describing your interest in the Institute and its programs
  • Curriculum vitae, including a full list of publications
  • Research statement 

In addition, applicants must submit the names and email addresses of three recommenders.

All of this information should be submitted via the application form, available at: simons.berkeley.edu/fellowship-application-form. When an applicant submits this form, each recommender will receive an automatically generated request for a letter. Applicants may wish to check with their recommenders before the deadline that they have submitted their letters; it is ultimately the applicant's responsibility to ensure that the letters are submitted.

  • The deadline for receipt of complete Summer 2019 application materials (except letters) was November 15, 2018; late applications will not be considered. The deadline for receipt of recommendation letters was November 30, 2018. 
  • The deadline for receipt of complete Fall 2019 and/or Spring 2020 application materials (except letters) was December 15, 2018; late applications will not be considered. The deadline for receipt of recommendation letters was December 31, 2018.

For questions, please contact our Senior Program Coordinator Uta Lorenzen at +1-510-664-9852 or via email at uta@berkeley.edu.