The Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry is now accepting applications for 2024–2025 fellowships.

Submissions are due January 15, 2024.

The Beckman Center offers several fellowships and travel grants for scholars doing research in the history and social studies of chemistry and related sciences, technologies, and industries using the Institute’s collections. Their fellows are encouraged to collaborate with Institute staff and to interact with the robust community of historians of science across Philadelphia. Fellows also participate in an internal talk series and writing group, which provide a critical but collegial setting in which to develop works in progress.

Curatorial Fellow

Hosted by the Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry, curatorial fellowships are two-year benefit-eligible positions that integrate fellows as members of Institute staff. Fellows benefit from professional development, portfolio building, networking, and mentorship opportunities in the library and museum fields. Project outcomes build fellows’ resumes while advancing the Institute’s strategic goals.

Curatorial fellowships are intended for individuals with advanced degrees who are seeking professional opportunities outside of academia. This is an entry-level position intended to help those with subject-area expertise transition into a public-facing career, and both early-career and career-changing researchers are encouraged to apply. Scholars from any relevant field with a demonstrated interest in the history of science, broadly defined, will be considered. 

For more information regarding application requirements and process, please click here.

12-Month Postdoctoral Fellowship

Postdoctoral Research Fellowships are open to researchers who have earned a doctoral degree and graduate students who will have defended their dissertations by the end of July 2024. Applicants may be citizens of any country.

Applicants for the NEH Postdoctoral Fellowship must have earned a doctoral degree or have completed all requirements of the doctoral degree, including the defense, by the application deadline (January 15, 2024). Applicants for the NEH fellowship must also be United States Citizens or foreign nationals who have lived in the United States for the three years immediately preceding the application deadline.

For more information regarding application requirements and process, please click here.

9-Month Dissertation Fellowship

Dissertation Fellowships are open to graduate students whose PhD dissertation proposals have been accepted by their respective university departments by the application deadline (January 15, 2024). Applicants may be citizens of any country.

For more information regarding application requirements and process, please click here.

Short-Term and Distinguished Fellowships

Eligibility for Distinguished Fellowships extends to tenured professors and academics at the rank of senior lecturer or above, established scholars in independent research libraries or museums, and independent scholars with a commensurate record of scholarly achievement. Applicants may be citizens of any country.

Short-Term Fellowships are open to all scholars and researchers, irrespective of career stage or educational credentials, who plan to work closely with the Institute’s collections on an independent research project. Applicants may be citizens of any country.

For more information regarding application requirements and process, please click here.

Travel Grants

There is no deadline for travel grant applications. Travel grant applications can be submitted at any time and are assessed by an internal review committee on a rolling basis. Please allow up to one month for notification of the committee’s decision.

Travel grant applicants must reside more than 75 miles from Philadelphia to be eligible. No more than one travel grant per person per fiscal year (July 1 to June 30) can be awarded. Grants must be taken within one year of the award or the grantee must request an extension or reapply.

A travel grant application must contain:

◇ abstract (up to 150 words)

◇ a research proposal that describes how the applicant will make use of the Science History Institute’s collections (one page);

◇ CV (up to four pages)

◇ one reference letter

To submit travel grants, visit their online application form.

For more information contact travelgrants@sciencehistory.org.

For additional information regarding the Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry, click here.