Kempner Research Fellowship 2027 at Harvard

The Kempner Research Fellowship supports early stage postdoctoral scientists at the Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence at Harvard University. Fellows serve for up to three years and get salary, research funds, office space and access to one of the largest academic machine learning clusters.

Fellows receive a salary of $100,000 per year plus benefits, for up to three years. They also get up to $10,000 per year for professional or research expenses. They work in the Kempner Institute building in Harvard's Science and Engineering Complex in Allston, Massachusetts.

The fellowship is for research on the foundations of intelligence, or on new AI and machine learning methods and the study of deep learning. Examples on the page include LLMs, generative AI models, computational biology and the analysis of high dimensional neural and behavioral data. The research must be computational, not bench based. You must be at least in the final year of your PhD. For fall 2027, you must receive the PhD no earlier than September 1, 2024 and no later than September 1, 2027.

To apply, send a CV, a list of two or three proposed mentors among Harvard faculty working on machine learning, AI or computational neurobiology, a research proposal of up to three pages, a personal statement of up to two pages, and the emails of three referees. The application is complete only when all letters have arrived, and referees have one week after the deadline to send them.

The deadline is October 1, 2026 at 6:00pm EST. Shortlisted candidates give a virtual presentation and interview on November 12, 13, 19 or 20, 2026. Fellowships usually start on September 1, 2027. The institute selects fellows on fit with its mission, how new the proposed research is, what they can add to the community, and their record of pursuing ambitious projects on their own.