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The Joan and Joseph Birman Fellowship for Women Scholars

The Joan and Joseph Birman Fellowship for Women Scholars The Joan and Joseph Birman Fellowship for Women Scholars is a mid-career research fellowship specially designed to fit the unique needs of women. This program is made possible by a generous gift from Joan and Joseph Birman. One award will be made for the 2025–2026 academic year in the amount of US$50,000. AMS membership will also be offered to the recipient for the duration of the Fellowship.

The fellowship seeks to address the paucity of women at the highest levels of research in mathematics by giving exceptionally talented women extra research support during their mid-career years. The most likely awardee will be a mid-career woman whose achievements demonstrate significant potential for further contributions to mathematics. 

Candidates must have a statement regarding the applicant's overall program of research, past and planned, that is meaningful to mathematicians who are not specialists. The statement should be no more than three pages, including bibliographical references. Special circumstances (such as time taken off for care of children or other family members) may be taken into consideration in making the award. Awardees may use the fellowship in any way that most effectively enables their research - for instance, for release time, participation in special research programs, travel support, childcare, etc. The award is issued through the recipient's institution, however, institutions may not charge costs of any kind to AMS fellowships, such as fringe benefit rate, indirect costs, or overhead.

Applications are currently being accepted on MathPrograms from July 15 through September 30, 2024 (11:59 p.m. EDT).

Apply to the Joan and Joseph Birman Fellowship for Woman Scholars AMS :: Joan and Joseph Birman Fellowship for Women Scholars

Most Recent Fellowship: 2024

Greta Panova, Gabilan Distinguished Professor of Science and Engineering and professor of mathematics at the University of Southern California, has been awarded the 2024-2025 AMS Joan and Joseph Birman Fellowship for Women Scholars. Panova's research is in Algebraic Combinatorics with connections to Representation Theory, Computational Complexity Theory within Theoretical Computer Science and with Probability and Statistical Mechanics. Separately, she works with a team of molecular biologists on modeling DNA repair dynamics.

Fellowship announcement as seen in the news release.

See previous winners

Read a feature story in Notices of the AMS about past Birman Fellows (PDF).

Eligibility

Applications will be accepted from mathematicians currently holding a tenured, tenure-track, postdoctoral, or comparable (at the discretion of the selection committee) position at a U.S. institution.

How to Apply

The application form requires the following information:

  • Research Statement: a statement regarding the applicant's overall program of research, past and planned, that is meaningful to mathematicians who are not specialists. The statement should be no more than three pages, including bibliographical references.
  • Research Plan: a detailed research plan for the fellowship period that is contextualized by the research statement. The plan should include a description of how the fellowship will support the applicant's success. It should be no more than one page.
  • Key Professional Accomplishments: a list of up to ten publications or other professional activities that demonstrate the applicant's contributions to the mathematics profession. This list should be no more than one page.
  • NSF-style Summary of Current and Pending Support: to create an NSF Current and Pending Support document, visit https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sciencv, log into your NSF account, follow the prompts in the walk-through form, select "Create new document," choose the "NSF Current and Pending (Other) Support" format, and download the PDF.​​​​​​
  • NSF-style Biographical Sketch: to create the NSF-style biographical sketch, visit https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sciencv, log into your NSF account, follow the prompts in the walk-through form, select "Create new document," choose the "NSF Biographical Sketch" format, and download the PDF.
  • References: a list of three reference writers who can address the applicant’s accomplishments and research potential. Use the email links on the coversheet to send a password and instructions directly to the writers.

Applications will be accepted on MathPrograms from July 15 through September 30, 2024 (11:59 p.m. EDT).

Contact

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Questions about the Birman Fellowship? Email us.

For all other Programs inquiries email AMS Programs staff.