The Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing currently welcomes applications for postdoctoral-level research fellowships in the Spring 2026 research program on Federated and Collaborative Learning. Applications are due by April 1, 2025. 

The Simons Institute is the world's leading center for collaborative research in theoretical computer science and its intersections with related fields. Established in 2012 with a grant from the Simons Foundation, the Institute is housed in Calvin Lab, a dedicated building on the UC Berkeley campus. The fundamental structural unit for the Institute’s research is the semester or summer research program on a particular topic in the fieldd. Run by a small group of organizers, a program typically includes 50+ long-term participants (a mix of senior and junior researchers), with additional short-term visitors attending weeklong program workshops. There are usually two concurrent research programs each semester, and a combination of programs and smaller clusters in the summer. 

Fellowship eligibility: Programmatic research fellowships are intended for exceptional young scientists (within at most five years of the award of their PhD at the start of academic year 2025). 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 one semester as a Simons Institute research fellow, subject to the approval of the postdoctoral institution. Graduate students will be considered only if the expected PhD completion date is before the start of the program.

The Institute expects to award about eight fellowships for each program in 2025, with one or two appointments for a full academic year. In each semester of residence, each Fellow will normally participate in one of the ongoing programs at the Institute. 

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 should prepare the following documents in a single PDF file:

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

In addition, applicants must submit the names and email addresses of three recommenders using the application form below. 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.

Applications are due by April 1, 2025. To apply, please complete the application form. For questions, please contact our Visitor Services team at simonsvisitorservices@berkeley.edu. 

Combining a Simons Institute research fellowship with a visit to another institution

Applicants seeking an opportunity that is more than a semester long may be able to combine a research fellowship at the Simons Institute with a visit to one of several other institutions supporting similar kinds of research, for example (partial list): 

• Center for Mathematical Modeling in Santiago, Chile
• Collaboration on the Theoretical Foundations of Deep Learning (Berkeley, Stanford, MIT, UCI, UCSD, TTIC, EPFL, Hebrew)
• Foundations of Data Science Institute (Berkeley, MIT, Boston, Bryn Mawr, Harvard, Howard, Northeastern)
• Institute for Foundations of Machine Learning (UT Austin, University of Washington, WSU)
• Institute for Emerging CORE Methods in Data Science (Lead - UCSD; Partners - UCLA, UT Austin, and UPenn)
• Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Saarbrücken, Germany
• Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago
• Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. Applicants must separately apply to each institution at which they want to spend time.