First 2019 Software Fellowship Competition Now Open!

First 2019 Software Fellowship Competition Now Open!

August 28, 2018 4688 views

Deadline: October 1, 2018

The Molecular Sciences Software Institute (MolSSI) is pleased to announce the latest Software Fellowship competition and the first competition for the 2019 awards.  These prestigious fellowships recognize advanced graduate students and postdocs pursuing the development of software infrastructure, middleware, and frameworks that will benefit the broader field of computational molecular sciences, including biomolecular and macromolecular simulation, quantum chemistry, and materials science. Fellows will receive specialized training in state-of-the-art software design principles and tools, and they will engage in outreach and educational efforts organized by the MolSSI.  Each Fellow will be assigned a mentor among the Institute’s Software Scientists, who will oversee their software development efforts and training.  In addition, Fellows are encouraged to spend a minimum of one week each year at the Institute headquarters at Virginia Tech to interact with the Software Scientists, members of the MolSSI Board of Directors, members of the Science and Software Advisory Board, and other visitors.

The MolSSI offers two types of Software Fellowships for which both graduate students and postdoctoral associates are eligible:

“Seed” Fellowships: These six month Fellowships will give recipients the opportunity to work with scientists at the MolSSI in order to implement recommended best practices, putting the Fellow’s project on a firm foundation.

“Investment” Fellowships: These 18-month Fellowships support software development efforts that will have a broader impact on the community and last for longer. These Fellowships provide longer term collaboration with the MolSSI scientists, who have a broad range of domain knowledge, applied mathematics, HPC and computer science backgrounds.

Note: The first MolSSI Investment Fellowship competition will not be held until spring 2019.  Only Seed Fellowships will be awarded in the current competition, and one need not hold a Seed Fellowship to be eligible for an Investment Fellowship.

Inquiries to: fellowships@molssi.org

The MolSSI Software Fellowships will include a number of benefits:

Graduate Student Fellowships:

  • A generous stipend of up to $40k/year ($20k total for Seed Fellowships) plus tuition and required fees;
  • Travel allowances sufficient to fully cover visits to the MolSSI headquarters, as well as participation in MolSSI workshops or summer schools;
  • Access to MolSSI computational resources, possibly including NSF supercomputers, Virginia Tech Advanced Research Computing facilities, and advanced experimental hardware provided by the Institute’s industrial partners.

Postdoctoral Fellowships:

  • A generous stipend of up to $50k/year ($25k total for Seed Fellowships);
  • Travel allowances sufficient to fully cover visits to the MolSSI headquarters, as well as participation in MolSSI workshops or summer schools;
  • Access to MolSSI computational resources, possibly including NSF supercomputers, Virginia Tech Advanced Research Computing facilities, and advanced experimental hardware provided by the Institute’s industrial partners.

Note that MolSSI Fellowships are paid from NSF Participant Support funds. The only allowable expense categories are stipend, tuition and fees; F&A (indirect costs) and health insurance costs are not allowed.

Eligibility and Selection Criteria:

The MolSSI Software Fellowship program is presently limited to graduate students and postdoctoral associates at accredited U.S. academic institutions. Graduate student Fellows are expected to be enrolled full time at their home university, and postdocs must be fully employed or have an offer of full employment prior to acceptance of the award.   The MolSSI Software Fellowships are an equal opportunity program open to all qualified persons without regard to race, gender, religion, age, physical disability or national origin.  Awardees may accept other concurrent awards that do not require a significant time or service commitment.

MolSSI Software Fellows will be selected by the MolSSI Science and Software Advisory Board based on (1) the quality of the applicant’s software research proposal and its relevance to the Institute’s     goals;     (2)     the     applicant’s     research     productivity,    including    previous software-development efforts; (3) previous academic performance; and (4) external references.

Application Requirements:

A complete MolSSI Software Fellowship Application must include:

  • Project description (maximum of two pages, not including references);
  • Current curriculum vitae;
  • Undergraduate transcripts (graduate applicants only); graduate transcripts (all applicants);
  • Examples of previous software development products (e.g. links to source-code repositories or other code samples);
  • Two letters of support, one of which must come from the applicant’s current research adviser;

Please complete the application and upload the required documents here.
Letters of recommendation should be uploaded separately by your references here.

To receive full consideration for a Software Fellowship, all application materials (including letters of recommendation) must be submitted by October 1, 2018.

Additional Information:

  • Pass-through Entity (PTE): Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
  • NSF award No. ACI – 1547580
  • Period of Performance
    • Start: 1 January 2019
    • End: 30 June 2019
  • CFDA No: 47.070
  • CFDA Title: Computer and Information Science and Engineering
  • Subject to FFATA: Yes