Current UofM RISE Fellows

Annual Deadline: January 15th

Fellowship Information: The RISE Doctoral Fellowship is a supplemental fellowship awarded to a limited number of high ability, incoming doctoral candidates in STEM fields. The $7,500 supplemental fellowship includes a $1,000 unrestricted stipend paid upon arrival and successful registration; a $1,000 unrestricted stipend when qualifying exams have been completed; up to $4,000 to support out-of-pocket costs associated with conducting dissertation research; and up to $1,500 in support for travel to present research and/or cover publication costs. Subject to receipt of required annual report and certification of satisfactory progress, fellowship funds will be available for 6 years (4 years for those with prior MS). Information for Current RISE Fellows

Eligibility Criteria: Nominees must be incoming PhD students (with our without a prior Masters) in fields defined as non-health science STEM. Academic units offering these degrees at the University of Memphis are Biomedical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Earth Sciences, and Mathematics. Incoming PhD students pursuing degrees in Psychology, Communication Sciences and Disorders, or Public Health whose research may be properly classified as neurobiology, neuroscience, epidemiology/population biology, microbiology, immunology, or toxicology MAY also eligible. If you are interested in nominating a student in one of these areas, please contact Research Development to discuss.

Annual Report/Certification: To remain eligible to access fellowship funds, Fellows must electronically submit an Annual Activities Report and Certification of Satisfactory Progress on or before June 30th. The Activities Report should not exceed 5 pages and should provide information on curricular activities and research accomplishments/related activities (e.g. presentations, publications, teaching and research assistantships, awards and recognitions, or other scholarly and service accomplishments). Advisors must review and certify satisfactory progress towards degree completion using the attached form.

Nomination Process: The graduate studies coordinator or (preferably) faculty mentor recruiting the student should submit a maximum 2-page letter of nomination on or before January 15th to Researchdev@memphis.edu.

Selection Process: The Division of Research and Innovation will assemble a review panel of STEM faculty and/or administrators to review new and continuation applications and meet as a full panel to prioritize the candidate pool. The Executive Vice President for Research and Innovation will make final selections based on these recommendations. Selections will be made by February 15th each year.