Hertz Foundation

Last updated
Fannie and John Hertz Foundation
Founded1957 [1]
FounderFannie and John D. Hertz
Focus Applied science and engineering
Location
Area served
United States
Method Ph.D. Fellowships
Key people
Robbee Baker Kosak, President
David J. Galas, Ph.D., Chairman of the Board
Philip Welkhoff, Ph.D., Senior Fellowship Interviewer
Revenue (2018)
$5,055,682 [2]
Expenses (2018)$4,364,123 [2]
Website hertzfoundation.org

The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation is an American non-profit organization that awards fellowships to Ph.D. students in the applied physical, biological and engineering sciences. The fellowship provides $250,000 of support over five years. The goal is for Fellows to be financially independent and free from traditional restrictions of their academic departments in order to promote innovation in collaboration with leading professors in the field. Through a rigorous application and interview process, the Hertz Foundation seeks to identify young scientists and engineers with the potential to change the world for the better and supports their research endeavors from an early stage. Fellowship recipients pledge to make their skills available to the United States in times of national emergency.

Contents

Hertz Fellowship

History

The Hertz Foundation was established in 1957 [1] with the goal of supporting applied sciences education. The founder, John D. Hertz, was a European emigrant [3] whose family arrived in the United States with few resources, when the Hertz was five years old. Hertz matured into a prominent entrepreneur and business leader (founder of the Yellow Cab Company and owner of the Hertz corporation) as the automotive age burgeoned in Chicago. Initially, the Foundation granted undergraduate scholarships to qualified and financially limited mechanical and electrical engineering students. In 1963, the undergraduate scholarship program was phased out and replaced with postgraduate fellowships leading to the award of the Ph.D. The scope of the studies supported by the fellowships was also enlarged to include applied sciences and other engineering disciplines.

Competitiveness

For the 2017–2018 academic year, nearly 800 applicants applied for 10 spots, giving it an acceptance rate of 1.5%. Since 1960, the foundation has made awards to 1,271 fellows, with 309 fellows affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; 255 with Stanford University; 104 with the University of California, Berkeley; 95 with the California Institute of Technology; and 76 with Harvard University. These top five universities account for nearly two-thirds of all fellows. [4]

InstitutionFellows (1960-2022) [4]
MIT 309
Stanford 255
Berkeley 104
Caltech 95
Harvard 76

Eligibility and application

To be eligible for a Hertz Fellowships, a student must be citizen or permanent resident of the United States of America. Eligible applicants must be students of the applied sciences, math or engineering, and desire to pursue a Ph.D. degree in the applied sciences, math or engineering. College seniors as well as graduate students already pursuing a Ph.D. may apply.

The application period opens in August, when electronic applications are made available by the Hertz Foundation. All Fellowship applicants are notified by mail of the Foundation's action on their application on or before April 1.

Notable Fellows

In 2018, some 30 Hertz Fellows were recognized by MIT Technology Review, Forbes, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, National Academy of Sciences and many others for outstanding work in their respective fields.

Thesis Prize

The Hertz Foundation requires that each Fellow furnish the Foundation a copy of his or her doctoral dissertation upon receiving the Ph.D. The Foundation's Thesis Prize Committee examines the Ph.D. dissertations for their overall excellence and pertinence to high-impact applications of the physical sciences. Each Thesis Prize winner receives an honorarium of $5,000. [15]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 "Jay Davis, PhD, Elected President of the Hertz Foundation". NonProfitPRO. 30 October 2009. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
  2. 1 2 "Fannie and John Hertz Foundation" (PDF). Hertz Foundation. Retrieved 3 December 2018.
  3. "The Hertz Corporation Partners with the Hertz Foundation to sponsor 2019 fellow". Bloomberg. 16 April 2019. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
  4. 1 2 "Our Fellows". hertzfoundation.org.
  5. "Kathleen Fisher". Fannie and John Hertz Foundation. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  6. "Leonidas Guibas". The Hertz Foundation. Retrieved 18 September 2022.
  7. "Nate Lewis, PhD, 1977 Hertz Fellow". The Hertz Foundation. Retrieved February 17, 2023.
  8. "David Kriegman". The Hertz Foundation. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
  9. Emma Pierson's webpage(PDF) https://www.cs.cornell.edu/~emmapierson/images/resume.pdf . Retrieved 30 October 2022.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  10. "Robert Sedgewick". Fannie and John Hertz Foundation. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  11. Saijel Kishan (1 October 2015). "Two Sigma Hires Google's Spector as Chief Technology Officer". Bloomberg.com.
  12. Celebrating 50 Years of the Hertz Graduate Fellowship (PDF). The Hertz Foundation. 2013.
  13. "General Officer Announcements". West Point Association of Graduates. Retrieved 2021-02-09.
  14. "Lee T. Todd, Jr". University of Kentucky. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
  15. "Hertz Thesis Prize". Fannie and John Hertz Foundation. Retrieved 2 March 2024.