Society of Hellman Fellows

The Society of Hellman Fellows was established at UC San Diego in 1995 through the generosity of Chris and Warren Hellman. 2024-2025 marks the 30th year of this valuable program, which provides financial support and encouragement to young faculty in core disciplines who show capacity for great distinction in their research and creative activities. Funds awarded are intended as one-time support for activities that will enhance the individual's progress towards tenure; therefore, prior to receiving a fellowship, faculty recipients will have served at least two years at the assistant professor rank as evidence of their promise of distinction. The maximum award amount is $50,000.

A call for applications for the 2024-2025 Society of Hellman Fellows will be sent to all eligible faculty in early January 2024. The application deadline is Monday, March 25, 2024.  The deadline to submit  the Department Chair Evaluation Form is Monday, April 1, 2024.

The application process for the Society of Hellman Fellows is administered by the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor. For additional information, contact Melanie Bentley at (858) 534-0098 or mbentley@ucsd.edu.

Current and Past Hellman Fellows 

Eligibility 

• Full-time, non-tenured, general campus and Scripps Institution of Oceanography ladder-rank faculty who have served at least two years at the assistant professor rank are eligible for consideration. Previous Hellman Fellows are not eligible.
• Preference in the allocation of fellowships is given to assistant professors of great promise who have not previously received substantial extramural funds targeted to new investigators, and who have a demonstrated need for additional funds. The maximum award amount is $50,000.
• Preference is given to those for whom the award would make a significant difference in their advancement towards tenure.
• Funds may be used for research-related expenses such as equipment, materials, conferences, travel and travel-related childcare, *summer salary support, and other research-related expenses including salaries for students or research assistants but may not be used to replace faculty salaries during the academic year. (*At the request of the donors, summer salary support should not exceed one month of summer salary and benefits).
• The recipient must be in the assistant professor rank at the time the transfer of award funds occurs.

Online Application Form 

Required components of the application include: 

1. Brief description (no more than 4 pages) of your proposed project. The project description should include the following elements:
   1. Description of the research/creative activities;
   2. Description of the methodology, including a time frame; equipment requests should be detailed to include how equipment will be used; and
   3. Explanation of how these activities will assist in the progress toward tenure
2. UC San Diego Academic Biography/Bibliography [same format as the one submitted for review]. Be sure to include your bibliography at the end of your UC San Diego Academic Biography form
3. Proposal abstract (approx. 50 words)
4. Two-line description of the project in lay terminology
5. Itemized budget
6. Information regarding your current available funding, confirmed future funding, pending applications. Include a breakdown of each item specifying the amount, fund source, and effective dates (years). Under current funding, insert remaining balances
7. Total number of each type of publication during your career to date (journal articles, refereed journal articles, refereed conference articles, books, book chapters, abstracts, and other texts) that fall into the categories of submitted, accepted for publication, and published. If you wish to include other creative activities that have been completed or are in progress, use the optional matrix identified for this purpose

Department Chair Evaluation Form

After an eligible faculty member submits an online application, an electronic request will be sent to the cognizant department chair to complete the online Department Chair Evaluation Form. 

Application Assistance 

For technical assistance with the online application system, please contact Stephen Hamilton at (858) 822-6494 or shhamilton@ucsd.edu.