Google.org is providing $13 million in funding to support the 2026 Google PhD Fellows — backing exceptional early-career scientists around the world with the funding, compute, and community to turn bold foundational questions into breakthroughs.
Director, Scientific Progress, Google.org
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We are awarding $13 million to 148 new PhD fellows across 38 countries to support their research in AI and computer science. These students are tackling global challenges in health, accessibility, and hardware to build a more representative scientific community. You can visit our website to see the full list of recipients and learn more about their work.
We are awarding $13 million to 148 graduate students through our 2026 PhD Fellowship Program. These researchers are studying ways to improve medical imaging, create inclusive language tools, and design faster computer hardware. By providing funding and access to our research community, we help these scientists pursue ambitious ideas that benefit people around the globe. You can see the full list of these scholars and their projects on our website.
Today, we are announcing the recipients of the 2026 Google PhD Fellowship Program. This year, Google.org is providing $13 million in funding to support fellowship recipients, including 148 new PhD fellows across 38 countries, deepening our commitment to the early-career scientists who are advancing the "science of AI" for the public good.
The 2026 Google PhD Fellowship cohort has broad global reach, with representation across 38 countries.
Foundational science with global reach
Every transformative leap in technology begins the same way: with a researcher asking a bold, foundational question long before the rest of the world sees the answer. What makes this cohort extraordinary isn’t just the technical depth of their work, but the global reach and real-world ambition behind it. Around the world, these fellows are tackling problems that matter to communities everywhere:
Direct funding and lifelong community
Breakthrough science rarely happens in isolation. Beyond direct funding and access to compute which gives students the freedom to pursue high-risk, high-reward ideas, every fellow gains access to engage with Google researchers, and is welcomed into a global scientific peer network.
Since 2009, the PhD Fellowship Program has supported more than 1,100 graduate students worldwide. Over the past 17 years, we have seen firsthand where that early catalyst can lead. Alumni of the program are now tenured professors, startup founders, open-source pioneers, and research leaders helping shape technology at Google itself.
When we support foundational science and the emerging researchers brave enough to chart the unknown, we help build a stronger, more representative global scientific landscape for everyone. Congratulations to the 2026 Google PhD Fellows. Explore the full list of 2026 recipients.
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