Microsoft Research PhD Fellowship to Study in Asia-Pacific

Applications for the 2022 Microsoft PhD Fellowship for Asia-Pacific are currently being received. For the purposes of this fellowship, applicants must attend a university in mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, or Taiwan. The Microsoft Research Asia Fellowship program identifies the next generation of research leaders through a unique program that offers a combination of mentorship, research, networking, and academic opportunities to promising young candidates.

Since its inception in 1999, the program has attracted over one thousand Ph.D. candidates from top universities in the Asia-Pacific region, and 441 outstanding Ph.D. students have been awarded the Microsoft Research Asia Fellowship honor. Fellows have gone on to become prominent researchers and influential individuals in academia and industry.

Fellows earn more than a simple scholarship; they enjoy long-term close engagement with Microsoft Research Asia, one of the leading computer science research labs in the world. Each winner has the opportunity to complete an internship, during which they participate in hands-on, advanced research at Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing, China.

Program Details

• Host institution: Universities in mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, or Taiwan.
• Research Areas: Please check list below.
• Number of awards: Not specified.
• Duration: Not Specified.
• Eligible Countries: Open to all countries.

Microsoft PhD Fellowship for Asia-Pacific Benefits

This Company Scholarship program offers some of the industry’s most competitive incentives and rewards, including:

1. Cash awards of $10,000 USD, which can be used to support research initiatives and academic endeavors including, but not limited to: attending international research conferences/events, and subsidizing paper and patent application fees.
2. Each winner has the opportunity to complete an internship, during which they participate in hands-on, advanced research at Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing, China.
3. Opportunity for intensive and individualized mentorship programs with a dedicated senior researcher, to help facilitate the fellow’s research until graduation.
4. Opportunity to attend the Microsoft Research Asia Academic Conference.
5. At the discretion of Microsoft Research Asia, advisors of fellows might be invited to participate in collaborative research projects and academic exchange events.

Research Areas

1. Computational Biology & Life Sciences
   • Studies in Pandemic Preparedness: Projects – Microsoft Research
   • Station B – Microsoft Research
   • Structural and computational insights into the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron RBD-ACE2 interaction | bioRxiv
   • Improved Drug-target Interaction Prediction with Intermolecular Graph Transformer (arxiv.org)
   • Loss of Spike N370 glycosylation as an important evolutionary event for the enhanced infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 | Cell Research (nature.com)
   • Exploring the Regulatory Function of the N‐terminal Domain of SARS‐CoV‐2 Spike Protein through Molecular Dynamics Simulation – Li – 2021 – Advanced Theory and Simulations – Wiley Online Library
   • SAMF: a self-adaptive protein modeling framework | Bioinformatics | Oxford Academic (oup.com)
   • Complementing sequence-derived features with structural information extracted from fragment libraries for protein structure prediction | BMC Bioinformatics | Full Text (biomedcentral.com)
2. Computational Physics
   • Learning Physics-Informed Neural Networks without Stacked Back-propagation (arxiv.org)
   • Message Passing Neural PDE Solvers (arxiv.org)
   • Lie Point Symmetry Data Augmentation for Neura l PDE Solvers (arxiv.org)
   • Solving the Quantum Many-Body Problem with Artificial Neural Networks – Microsoft Research
3. Computational Sustainability
   • Deep learning for prediction of the air quality response to emission changes
   • Mimicking atmospheric photochemical modeling with a deep neural network
   • Exploring deep learning for air pollutant emission estimation
4. Computational Chemistry and Material Science
   • Microsoft/Graphormer: Graphormer is a deep learning package that allows researchers and developers to train custom models for molecule modeling tasks. It aims to accelerate the research and application in AI for molecule science, such as material design, drug discovery, etc.
   • Crystal Diffusion Variational Autoencoder for Periodic Material Generation (arxiv.org)
   • Accelerated discovery of 3D printing materials using data-driven multi-objective optimization (science.org)
   • Other computational science fields.

Microsoft PhD Fellowship for Asia-Pacific Eligibility

To apply for the Microsoft Fellowship Program, applicants must satisfy the below criteria:

• Applicants must attend a university in mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, or Taiwan, and do research work that relates to computing topics in which Microsoft Research is concerned with.
• According to the definition of the normative period of PhD programs of the applicant’s university and region, the applicant must graduate in 2023 or later. The applicants and their advisors will be asked for supporting documents, if needed.
• The Microsoft Research Asia Fellowship Committee has final determination of the interpretation of the above clauses.

Similar opportunities

1. Top 38 Scholarships Currently Open for Application;
2. Singapore University of Technology and Design Scholarships;
3. DAAD Helmut Schmidt Master Scholarship in Germany;
4. Friedrich Ebert Foundation Scholarship for International Students.

How to Apply for the Microsoft PhD Fellowship for Asia-Pacific

PhD students who are interested in this scholarship program to study in Asia must click on the apply button below to submit their applications for the scholarship. Applications must include:

1. An application form (download template here)
2. Curriculum vitae
3. Research Statement. This statement (of approximately 1,000 words) provides a summary of your research accomplishments and current work, and highlights your most outstanding contribution to the academia. It must discuss the future direction and potential of your work, especially your research plan for the next few years of PhD study.
4. At least two letters of reference from established researchers familiar with your research. Of these, one letter should come from your advisor. Scanned copies of the signed recommendation letters should be sent, by those recommending you, directly to [email protected].

The deadline to submit nominations is June 10, 2022. For more details on the Microsoft PhD Fellowship for Asia-Pacific, please visit the official page. To be the first to see latest opportunities, please follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.