The Hertz Foundation, the nation’s preeminent nonprofit organization committed to advancing American scientific and technological leadership, has announced 19 recipients of the 2026 Hertz Fellowship in the applied sciences, engineering and mathematics.
Awarded through a rigorous selection process honed over eight decades, the Hertz Fellowship is the nation’s most competitive doctoral fellowship in science and technology. Hertz Fellows receive up to five years of financial support a stipend and full tuition equivalent offering the rare freedom to pursue bold ideas and a community of influential peers dedicated to their success.
The 2026 Hertz Fellows are pursuing solutions to some of the most pressing challenges in science and technology, including developing RNA-based tools to combat multidrug-resistant bacteria, building a satellite mission to locate the universe’s missing matter, creating AI systems that learn and reason like humans, and advancing quantum simulation to probe questions once thought purely theoretical. Like every Hertz Fellow since 1963, the newest recipients make a moral commitment to support the United States in times of national emergency.
“Year after year, the Hertz Fellowship identifies individuals whose ambitions go far beyond personal achievement. This class is no exception,” said Stephen Fantone, chair of the Hertz Foundation board of directors and president and CEO of Optikos Corporation. “Our newest Hertz Fellows are committed to solving problems that matter for our national security, our health and our future.”
The new fellows represent a wide range of disciplines astrophysics, quantum chemistry, robotics, plant science, neuroscience and more — and will conduct their doctoral research at some of the nation’s most distinguished research universities. The class also includes the latest Hertz Fellow to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point, continuing an enduring tradition of Hertz Fellows with distinguished military careers.
In addition to financial support, the 19 new fellows join an interdisciplinary community of more than 1,300 Hertz Fellows worldwide, collectively responsible for some of the most significant scientific and technological progress of the past century. From the James Webb Space Telescope to global defense networks, and from advanced medical therapies to computational systems used by billions, Hertz Fellows turn groundbreaking research into real-world impact.
Fellows also gain access to lifelong programming, including mentoring, events and networking, that has supported research collaborations, technology commercialization, and the creation of early-stage companies. They benefit from partnerships with influential organizations in science, technology, national security and philanthropy, including the Gates Foundation, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Analog Devices and the American Physical Society.
“The strength of the Hertz Fellowship has always been its commitment to the long view supporting fellows not just through graduate school but throughout their lives,” said Wendy Connors, president of the Hertz Foundation. “The 2026 class joins a community that spans generations and disciplines, and we are committed to their success.”
Through a rigorous and time-tested selection process, led by Hertz Fellows Philip Welkhoff, director of the malaria program at the Gates Foundation, and Anna Bershteyn, associate professor of population health at New York University, the Hertz Fellowship identifies doctoral students with the extraordinary creativity and principled leadership necessary to tackle problems others can’t solve.
“What particularly impresses me about this cohort is their fearlessness in taking on new challenges and advancing the frontiers of science. Each has exhibited tremendous creativity, grit and vision, and I cannot wait to see what each accomplishes with the freedom to innovate provided by the Hertz Fellowship,” said Welkhoff. “Each of them will contribute to and benefit from the interdisciplinary Hertz community, and the impact of their work will benefit the United States in profound and lasting ways.”
“It’s an honor to welcome these brilliant minds into the Hertz community. Each of them has a unique way of being curious about the world, and took a unique path to this moment,” said Bershteyn. “Now, they’ll have the opportunity to uplift one another and join forces at the interfaces between their fields. That’s what makes the Hertz community such a powerful engine of innovation.”
Among past Hertz Fellow recipients are Nobel laureate John Mather, a NASA astrophysicist and former project scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope; Kimberly Budil, director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Kathleen Fisher, chief executive officer of Aria; and Dario Amodei and Jared Kaplan, co-founders of Anthropic, an AI safety and research company.
Throughout the foundation’s 63-year history of awarding fellowships, more than 1,300 Hertz Fellows have established a remarkable track record. Their ranks include two Nobel laureates; recipients of 11 Breakthrough Prizes and three MacArthur Foundation awards; and winners of the Turing Award, the Fields Medal, the National Medal of Technology, the National Medal of Science and the Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award. In addition, 53 are members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, and 37 are fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Hertz Fellows hold more than 3,000 patents, have founded more than 375 companies and have created hundreds of thousands of science and technology jobs.
