The Department of Defense National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship (DoD NDSEG) is a prestigious
fellow
A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context.
In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements.
Within the context of higher education ...
ship awarded annually to
U.S. citizens
Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Constitut ...
pursuing
doctoral degrees
A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...
in science and engineering disciplines. The highly competitive fellowship is sponsored by the
U.S. Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...
,
U.S. Space Force
The United States Space Force (USSF) is the space service branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and the world's only independent space force. Along with its sister branch, the U.S. Air Force, the Space ...
,
U.S. Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...
, and
U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
. These agencies make the final selection of the fellows. National Defense Fellows must be enrolled in research-based doctoral degrees aligned with the goals of the
U.S. Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secur ...
as outlined in a specific solicitation for research proposals, known as a
Broad Agency Announcement The Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) is a technique for United States government agencies to solicit proposals from outside groups for certain research and development. The agency will then select proposals to fund as contracts or grants. BAAs are ...
(BAA). Qualifying doctoral programs must be based in the United States. The NDSEG Fellowship lasts for three years, paying for full tuition and all mandatory fees in that period. The fellowship also awards the recipient a monthly stipend, totaling $40,800 annually, a $5,000 travel budget for the 3-year tenure, and a $1,400 annual health insurance budget. National Defense Fellows have no military service obligation upon completion of the program. In the 2020-2021 award cycle, 159 fellows were chosen from a pool of over 7,942 applicants, for a selection rate of roughly 2%.
Award history and details
An
act of Congress
An Act of Congress is a statute enacted by the United States Congress. Acts may apply only to individual entities (called Public and private bills, private laws), or to the general public (Public and private bills, public laws). For a Bill (law) ...
established the NDSEG Fellowship in 1989, requiring that fellows be selected "solely on the basis of academic ability." Over 4,000 fellowships have been granted since 1989 and over 60,000 applications have been received, for an acceptance rate below 7%.
Each Fellow's grant is supported by a specific agency of the Department of Defense. The
Office of Naval Research
The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is an organization within the United States Department of the Navy responsible for the science and technology programs of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. Established by Congress in 1946, its mission is to plan ...
(ONR) is responsible for the science and technology programs of the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
and
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...
; awarding typically between 30 and 60 fellowships each year.
The Vice Chief of Naval Research also serves as the
Commanding General
The commanding officer (CO) or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latitu ...
of the
Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory
The United States Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL) was established in 1995, at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia. The organization was originally known as the Commandant's Warfighting Laboratory.
The battle lab is part of Combat Dev ...
(MCWL). The
Air Force Office of Scientific Research
The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is a scientific research organization operated by the United States Air Force Materiel Command dedicated to leading the discovery, development, and integration of aerospace warfighting technologies, pl ...
(AFOSR) manages the Air Force program. Applicants selecting the U.S. Army as their preferred agency may choose from BAAs for the
Army Research Office
The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory (DEVCOM ARL) is the U.S. Army's foundational research laboratory. ARL is headquartered at the Adelphi Laboratory Center (ALC) in Adelphi, Maryland. Its largest singl ...
(ARO),
Engineer Research and Development Center
The Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) is a US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) research and laboratory organization. The headquarters is located in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on the site of an antecedent organization, the Waterways Exper ...
(ERDC), or
United States Army Medical Research and Development Command
United may refer to:
Places
* United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community
* United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community
Arts and entertainment Films
* ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film
* ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two fi ...
(USAMRDC).
The $40,800 annual stipend is paid directly to National Defense Fellows on a monthly basis. There are no earmarks or usage requirements for this stipend. Fellows are required to participate in the NDSEG Fellows Conference in their 2nd year of tenure as a fellow. Travel for conferences or professional development may be charged to the $5,000 travel budget, for which the mandatory Fellows Conference qualifies. Tuition payments and fees are paid directly to universities by the NDSEG program office. The NDSEG Fellowship allows awardees to transfer the fellowship title and funding to different universities, allowing them to choose whichever institution they wish to attend.
Eligibility and application requirements
Applicants must be
Citizens of the United States (including
dual citizens
Dual or Duals may refer to:
Paired/two things
* Dual (mathematics), a notion of paired concepts that mirror one another
** Dual (category theory), a formalization of mathematical duality
*** see more cases in :Duality theories
* Dual (grammatical ...
) or
U.S. Nationals
United States nationality law details the conditions in which a person holds United States nationality. In the United States, nationality is typically obtained through provisions in the U.S. Constitution, various laws, and international agree ...
who have completed a qualifying
undergraduate degree
An undergraduate degree (also called first degree or simply degree) is a colloquial term for an academic degree earned by a person who has completed undergraduate courses. In the United States, it is usually offered at an institution of higher e ...
prior to the start of the fellowship. In order to receive the fellowship, students must be accepted to or enrolled in a qualifying doctoral program. It is possible to apply for the DoD NDSEG Fellowship while applying to graduate programs, but receipt of the grant and fellowship is contingent on acceptance and enrollment into the graduate program.
U.S. citizens enrolled in dual
MD-PhD programs qualify to apply for the NDSEG Fellowship; but pure
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin language, Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a profes ...
programs do not qualify. Unlike the
NSF-GRFP
The National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF-GRFP) is a prestigious grant awarded annually by the National Science Foundation to approximately 2,000 students pursuing research-based Master's and doctoral degrees in the ...
, It is possible to apply for the NDSEG Fellowship after completing a
Master’s degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice. . Students enrolled in
PhD programs which award a master's degree ''en route'' qualify to apply.
The application for the DoD NDSEG Fellowship requires students to apply to a specific
Broad Agency Announcement The Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) is a technique for United States government agencies to solicit proposals from outside groups for certain research and development. The agency will then select proposals to fund as contracts or grants. BAAs are ...
(BAA) within the Department of Defense. BAAs outline research and scientific goals identified by a given branch of the U.S. Military, and solicit research proposals or grants. Applicants must identify a BAA that funds the aims of their own research. BAAs may be specific to a particular branch of the U.S. Military or apply to multiple branches. Applicants are required to submit a 4-page single-spaced research proposal, with a maximum of one page for cited work. Applicants must submit 3 professional/academic references, academic records, and GRE score.
As of 2021, qualifying research program areas include:
* Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering
* Biomedical Engineering
* Chemical Engineering
* Chemistry
* Civil Engineering
* Cognitive, Neural, and Behavioral Sciences
* Computer and Computational Sciences
* Electrical Engineering
* Geosciences (Includes Terrain, Water, and Air)
* Materials Science and Engineering
* Mathematics
* Mechanical Engineering
* Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering (Includes Undersea Systems)
* Oceanography (Includes Ocean Acoustics, Remote Sensing, and Marine Meteorology)
* Physics (Includes Optics)
* Space Physics
Additional information
The DoD NDSEG Fellowship is often compared to the
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF-GRFP). The NDSEG Fellowship is unlike the GRFP in that it cannot be deferred, and that NDSEG Fellows are paid through a contracting agency of the DoD rather than through the university in which the fellow is enrolled. The NDSEG Fellowship is managed by Innovative Technology Solutions of
Dayton, Ohio
Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Day ...
. The fellowship has previously been managed by the
American Society for Engineering Education
The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) is a non-profit member association, founded in 1893, dedicated to promoting and improving engineering and engineering technology education. The purpose of ASEE is the advancement of education ...
(ASEE),
STI-TEC, and Systems Plus.
Notable recipients
*
Reid Barton
Reid William Barton (born May 6, 1983) is a mathematician and also one of the most successful performers in the International Science Olympiads..
Biography
Barton is the son of two environmental engineers. Officially homeschooled since third gr ...
, four-time
International Mathematical Olympiad
The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is a mathematical olympiad for pre-university students, and is the oldest of the International Science Olympiads. The first IMO was held in Romania in 1959. It has since been held annually, except i ...
gold medalist and four-time
Putnam Fellow
The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, often abbreviated to Putnam Competition, is an annual mathematics competition for undergraduate college students enrolled at institutions of higher learning in the United States and Canada (regar ...
*
John Duchi, Associate Professor of Statistics and Electrical Engineering at
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
and co-inventor of
AdaGrad
Stochastic gradient descent (often abbreviated SGD) is an iterative method for optimizing an objective function with suitable smoothness properties (e.g. differentiable or subdifferentiable). It can be regarded as a stochastic approximation of gr ...
algorithm
*
Michael J. Freedman
Michael J. Freedman is an American computer scientist who is the Robert E. Kahn Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University, where he works on distributed systems, networking, and security. He is also the cofounder of database company ...
, Robert E. Kahn Professor of Computer Science at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
*
Neil Garg, Kenneth N. Trueblood Endowed Chair in Chemistry & Biochemistry at
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
*
Steven G. Johnson, Professor of Applied Mathematics and Physics at
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
*
Jonathan Katz
Jonathan Paul Katz (born December 1, 1946) is an American actor and comedian best known for his starring role in the animated sitcom '' Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist'' as Dr. Katz. He also is known for voicing Erik Robbins in the UPN/Adult S ...
, Professor of Computer Science at the
University of Maryland
The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...
*
Daniel M. Kane, two-time
International Mathematical Olympiad
The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is a mathematical olympiad for pre-university students, and is the oldest of the International Science Olympiads. The first IMO was held in Romania in 1959. It has since been held annually, except i ...
gold medalist and Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science and Engineering at
UC San Diego
The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...
*
Kiran Kedlaya,
Stefan E. Warschawski
Stefan Emanuel "Steve" Warschawski (April 18, 1904 – May 5, 1989) was a Russian-born American mathematician, a professor and department chair at the University of Minnesota and the founder of the mathematics department at the University of Califo ...
Chair in Mathematics at
UC San Diego
The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...
*
Mark J. Lewis, aerospace engineer and 31st
Chief Scientist of the United States Air Force
The Chief Scientist of the Air Force is the most senior science & technology representative in the United States Department of the Air Force. The current Chief Scientist of the United States Air Force is Victoria Coleman, sworn in on April 6, 202 ...
*
Percy Liang, Associate Professor of Computer Science at
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
and creator of Stanford Question Answering Dataset (SQuAD)
*
Po-Ru Loh, two-time
International Mathematical Olympiad
The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is a mathematical olympiad for pre-university students, and is the oldest of the International Science Olympiads. The first IMO was held in Romania in 1959. It has since been held annually, except i ...
gold medalist and Assistant Professor of Medicine at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
*
Hideo Mabuchi
Hideo Mabuchi (born 1971) is a physicist and Professor of Applied Physics at Stanford University, and the head of the Mabuchi Lab.
He graduated from Princeton University ''magna cum laude'', with an A.B. in Physics in 1992, and from
California I ...
, 2000
MacArthur Fellow
The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 ind ...
and Professor of Applied Physics at
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
*
Charles Musgrave, Robert H. Davis Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the
University of Colorado Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado syst ...
*
Lenhard Ng
Lenhard Ng (born 1976, United States) is an American mathematician, working primarily on symplectic geometry. Ng is a professor of mathematics at Duke University.
Background and education
Lenhard Ng is an American of Chinese descent. His fa ...
, two-time
International Mathematical Olympiad
The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is a mathematical olympiad for pre-university students, and is the oldest of the International Science Olympiads. The first IMO was held in Romania in 1959. It has since been held annually, except i ...
gold medalist and Professor of Mathematics at
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...
*
SonBinh Nguyen
SonBinh T. Nguyen is the McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence and the Dow Chemical Company Research Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University. He is also the former Director of the Integrated Sciences Program.
Nguyen received his B.S ...
, Professor of Chemistry at
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
*
Emma Pierson
Emma Jane Pierson (born 30 April 1981) is an English actress. Her appearances in television programmes include the role of Anna Thornton-Wilton in the BBC television drama '' Hotel Babylon'', and ''SunTrap'', '' Days Like These'', '' Beast'' ...
, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
*
Alia Sabur
Alia Sabur (born February 22, 1989) is an American materials scientist. She holds the record for being the world's youngest professor.
Early life and education
Sabur was born in New York City, New York. Her mother, Julie Sabur (born Kessler), ...
, world's youngest professor
*
Amit Sahai
Amit Sahai (born 1974) is an American computer scientist. He is a professor of computer science at UCLA and the director of the Center for Encrypted Functionalities.
Biography
Amit Sahai was born in 1974 in Thousand Oaks, California, to parents wh ...
, Symantec Chair Professor of Computer Science at
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
*
Ivan Selesnick, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Chair at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
*
Kevin Skadron, Harry Douglas Forsyth Professor of Computer Science at the
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...
*
Salil Vadhan
Salil Vadhan is an American computer scientist. He is Vicky Joseph Professor of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at Harvard University. After completing his undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Computer Science at Harvard in 1995, he ...
, Vicky Joseph Professor of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
*
Lauren K. Williams, Dwight Parker Robinson Professor of Mathematics at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
*
Daniela Witten,
Dorothy Gilford Endowed Chair of Mathematical Statistics at the
University of Washington
The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington.
Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...
*
Melanie Wood
Melanie Matchett Wood (born 1981) is an American mathematician at Harvard University who was the first woman to qualify for the U.S. International Mathematical Olympiad Team. She completed her PhD in 2009 at Princeton University (under Manjul Bha ...
, Professor of Mathematics at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
See also
*
Hertz Fellowship
*
Computational Science Graduate Fellowship
The Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (CSGF) program is a highly selective graduate fellowship program sponsored by the United States Department of Energy and administered by the Krell Institute. Started in 1990, it awards four-year fello ...
*
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
*
SMART Defense Scholarship
References
{{Reflist
Military research of the United States
Research and development in the United States
Education finance in the United States
Fellowships
Scholarships in the United States
1989 establishments in the United States