J-WAFS Fellowships for Water and Food Solutions
Fellowship applications were due Friday, March 1, 2024. Check back in January of 2025 for the next call for fellowships.
The Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS) was founded in 2014 as an effort to amplify MIT’s research in the water and food sectors in order to respond to the urgent global water and food challenges faced by our human community. In 2017, J-WAFS inaugurated two J-WAFS graduate student fellowships: the Rasikbhai L. Meswani Fellowship for Water Solutions and the J-WAFS Graduate Student Fellowship Program. For each fellowship, selected doctoral students will receive one semester of funding.
The Rasikbhai L. Meswani Fellowship for Water Solutions is a doctoral fellowship for students pursuing research related to water and water supply at MIT. At least one outstanding student will be selected to receive fellowship support; the fellowship currently covers one academic semester. Through it we seek to support outstanding MIT students who are pursuing solutions to the pressing global water supply challenges of our time. This fellowship was made possible by Elina and Nikhil Meswani and family.
The J-WAFS Graduate Student Fellowship is supported by members of the J-WAFS Research Affiliate Program and offers one semester of funding. The J-WAFS Research Affiliate Program offers companies the opportunity to partner with MIT around water and food research. The program is central to J-WAFS' efforts to engage across sector and disciplinary boundaries in solving real-world problems. A portion of each Research Affiliate’s fees supports this fellowship. In AY24, J-WAFS will award at least one fellowship to a student pursuing research related to solutions for water or food systems.
Application to the Meswani Fellowship and the J-WAFS Graduate Student Fellowship is by faculty nomination; nominating faculty and students interested in the fellowship should click the button below to read the RFP for instructions and nominating requirements.
Students eligible to be nominated for a Meswani Fellowship or a J-WAFS Graduate Student Fellowship must be MIT PhD students who are graduating no earlier than May of 2025. (Please note that no portion of awarded fellowships can be used for continuing postdoctoral appointments or other nondegree support if an awardee graduates early or before spending down the fellowship award). Students must have passed their qualifying exams by the nomination deadline, March 1, 2024. Nominees should be engaged in research focused on alleviating problems of water supply for human need, or other solutions-based research and innovation related to the water sector, or research related to food supply, agriculture, or other solutions-based research and innovation related to food systems. Nominees do not need to specify which fellowship they are applying for.
J-WAFS seeks students with outstanding academic credentials for these fellowships; candidates should be able to demonstrate a GPA of 4.5 or higher. They should also have a clear research question and plan that they are actively pursuing. Eligible students must be in residence at MIT during the fellowship award period.
Complete nomination packets are due by email to J-WAFS no later than 5:00 p.m. ET on Friday, March 1st, 2024.
Click the button below for more information and submission instructions.
“I have gained so much through my J-WAFS fellowship, including making important connections. I wouldn’t have gotten these opportunities if it were not for J-WAFS.”
——Tzu-Chieh Tang, PhD candidate, Department of Biological Engineering 2017-2018 J-WAFS Fellow for Water Solutions
