The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation invites your graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to apply for the Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellowship in Chemical Sciences or Chemical Instrumentation. The 2025 AOB Postdoc Program opens May 29, 2024, and LOI submissions are due September 6, 2024, by 5 p.m.
About the Program
Following in the footsteps of our Founder, Dr. Arnold O. Beckman, himself a photochemist and instrument developer, the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation recognizes the clear need for more support for postdoctoral training in the chemical sciences. The purpose of the Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellows Award is to support postdoctoral fellows at research institutions across the United States who are judged to have the highest potential for success in a career in chemistry and who will become the next generation of leaders and innovators in science, engineering, and technology. The Fellowships will be in two tracks:
- Postdoctoral Fellowship in Chemical Sciences will allow chemists to pursue advanced research within the core areas of fundamental chemistry, to include chemical physics, chemical engineering, and chemistry of materials research. This fellowship is not intended to fund proposals that are supported by traditional NIH mechanisms in the fields of medicinal chemistry, chemical biology, and biochemistry.
- Postdoctoral Fellowship in Chemical Instrumentation will allow researchers in chemistry to conceptualize, develop and build instrumentation suitable to advanced research in chemistry, chemical physics, chemical engineering, and chemistry of materials science. Instrumentation projects must be suitable to the two-year fellowship timeframe, be driven by a need in the chemical sciences listed above, be innovative in method, speed or process or represent a wholly new instrument for technological advancement in chemistry, and may potentially be used for future research in the broader scientific community.
It is the Foundation’s intent that the Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellowship will be the catalyst to aid in the fellow’s transition to an outstanding, independent academic research career or a research career in industry/governmental laboratories.
The Foundation will support up to 14 exceptional research fellows with more than $4.5 million in funding over the next three years. The award amount is $224,000 over 2 years for salary, fringe benefits and research expenditures; Instrumentation fellowships will receive an additional one-time amount of up to $200,000. Fellows receiving year 3 renewal awards will receive an additional $118,000.
The Foundation will use a 2-step application process:
- Step 1: Letter of Intent (LOI) will be a blinded review of the research proposal – be sure to follow the instructions for blinding your research proposal and references. The Letter of Intent will open the last week of May and is an open call.
- Step 2: Full Application for those invited to apply, based on reviews of the LOIs
For additional information regarding this program, please visit the Beckman Foundation website or email aobpostdoc@beckman-foundation.org.