Harvard Environmental Fellows Program 2027 (Two-Year Post-Doctoral Fellowship) at Harvard University Center for the Environment, Cambridge, USA (Salary USD 92,000 per year)

The Harvard University Center for the Environment (HUCE) created the Environmental Fellows program to enable recent doctorate recipients to use and expand Harvard's resources to tackle complex environmental issues. Fellows work for two years with Harvard faculty members in any school or department, forming a community of researchers that strengthens connections across the University. The application window for the 2027 cohort is open, and HUCE expects to award approximately five fellowships for the 2027 cohort.

Recipients and hosts may include people with degrees in the sciences, economics, law, government, public policy, public health, medicine, design and the full array of humanities. Interdisciplinary projects are encouraged but not required.

• Salary of USD 92,000 per year.
• Employee health insurance eligibility.
• Up to USD 2,500 reimbursement for relocation expenses.
• A USD 2,500 annual allowance for travel and other professional expenses.
• A co-curricular programme, including biweekly dinners with Harvard faculty and a faculty speaker.

• A doctorate or comparable terminal degree awarded between May 2023 and August 2027. Fellows must have filed their dissertation before starting the appointment in September 2027.
• Candidates with a doctorate or equivalent in any field are eligible and may propose research in any discipline. Applicants without a PhD may apply if they studied in fields where the PhD is not the typical terminal degree. Holders of Master's degrees only are not eligible.
• Degrees may be from any university in the world. Foreign nationals are eligible, though study at Harvard requires proficiency in English; HUCE states it works with Harvard's International Office to support visa applications.
• Harvard degree holders and current Harvard post-docs are eligible only if their research and host arrangements take them in new directions, distinct from their PhD work, and not with the same professors or groups.
• Fellows must commit to the full two years and reside in the Cambridge area; fieldwork must be scheduled for the summer or January recess.

Each candidate must secure a commitment from one or more Harvard faculty members (tenure-track professors) to act as mentor and provide office or lab space for the two years. An application will not be reviewed without a faculty host letter. Faculty may host only one Environmental Fellow at a time. For 2027, Charles Davis, Charles Taylor, Scott Edwards, Le Xie, Robin Kelsey and Phillip Deloria are not eligible to host, and Richard Lazarus (HLS) and Joyce Chaplin (History) have said they cannot serve as hosts. The Department of the History of Science has a 1 November deadline for all sponsor requests.

A committee of HUCE faculty evaluates the applicant's prior academic and professional success and potential contribution to scholarship or practice. The proposed project should be an independent line of inquiry clearly extending beyond the candidate's PhD work and the host's ongoing research; its relevance to environmental issues and the applicant's potential for intellectual achievement are critical. The host's enthusiasm, ability to mentor and provision of a productive work environment also count. A select group of applicants will be interviewed over video.

Complete the online application on Harvard Academic Positions (ARIeS) by 1 December 2026 at 5:00 pm ET (3:30 am IST on 2 December 2026), attaching as PDFs:

• Curriculum vitae with list of publications.
• A detailed research proposal of up to five pages (references counted separately) explaining the specific reasons for applying to a Harvard residential environmental fellowship.
• Up to three publications or writing samples.

The form also asks for a proposed research title, an abstract of up to 175 words, citizenship and the host's name. Three letters of reference are required, including one from the dissertation adviser; the system emails recommenders only after the application is submitted. The host's letter of support (maximum two pages) goes directly to environmental_fellows@harvard.edu. Reference and host letters are due by 11 December 2026 at 5:00 pm ET.

HUCE plans to select fellows and alternates and notify applicants by late January 2027. Fellows can start as early as 1 July, and the aim is to have the new cohort in Cambridge by the beginning of September 2027.