Program Description: Microsoft Research seeks nominees who are advancing computing research in novel directions with the potential for high impact on the state of the art, and who demonstrate the likelihood of becoming thought leaders in the field.

The future of computing in academe rests with its newest faculty. In these early-career professionals lie the seeds of tomorrow’s great innovations. However, while recognized faculty with well-established reputations are able to attract the financial support necessary for substantial research programs, new faculty often struggle to secure adequate support to allow them to realize their full potential.

Because new faculty are so vital to the future of academic computer science, the Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship Program identifies, recognizes, and supports exceptional new faculty members who are engaged in innovative computing research. The objective of this program is to stimulate and support creative research undertaken by promising researchers who have the potential to make a profound impact on the field of computing in their research disciplines.

Each fellowship includes a cash award. The Microsoft Research Faculty Fellows also have access to other Microsoft resources, such as software, invitations to conferences, and engagements with Microsoft Research. Microsoft awards Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship grants each year; awardees are selected by April.

The Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship Awards program provides recipients considerable freedom in planning the focus of their academic research. The funds can be applied to a wide variety of uses to pursue novel research. Examples of possible research areas include, but are not limited to: interdisciplinary research, scientific computing, bioinformatics, computational biology, software engineering, and other areas where computing transforms the discipline and advances the state of the art.

An emphasis is placed on nominations from departments working on computing research areas and on areas that involve the innovative application of computing.

• In the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, nominees must hold a tenure-track faculty position, and should have completed their most recent PhD, ScD, or MD in 2006 or later.
• Nominees from the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, the Middle East, or Africa must be new faculty members in the first, second, or third year of their first tenure-track faculty appointment.

Please see the solicitation for complete information.

Associate Deans or Designates should submit the following materials electronically to limitedsub@austin.utexas.edu by 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 3, 2012:

1. Dean's or ORU Director's Letter of Nomination
2. Two-page maximum lay abstract describing the aims/needs of the proposed research project.
   
3. The bio sketch/CV of the UT PI
   

Each college may submit one (1) nomination for consideration.