GMAF-Ukraine
The Global MIT At-Risk Fellows (GMAF) Program is designed to enhance the educational and research experiences of international university faculty and researchers by introducing them to MIT campus methods and strategies in their areas of specialty. The GMAF-Ukraine pilot program focuses on Ukrainian scholars with current or recent affiliations at Ukrainian universities or the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. The applicants may currently be residing in Ukraine (with eligibility to leave the country) or be living outside the country since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The application process for the Spring 2025 semester is now closed.
Fellowship
Fellows selected by the GMAF-Ukraine faculty committee will spend a semester at MIT. Each fellow will be paired with an MIT faculty advisor in their field and have an opportunity observe research work and classes taught by their advisor or another MIT faculty member. Fellows will also be invited to attend lab meetings and on-campus programming that may be of interest to them in their area of specialty and beyond. MIT covers expenses associated with the GMAF fellowship, including travel, accommodations, visas, health insurance, instructional materials, as well as a general living stipend.
GMAF-Ukraine welcomes applications from all qualified faculty and researchers who are:
- Holders of academic or research appointments (or had been prior to February 2022) at a Ukrainian university or the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences
- Interested in and committed to bringing their scholarship to bear on Ukraine’s current challenges
- Holders of a PhD (or equivalent degree) in a field that is also represented at MIT
- Ukrainian citizens
GMAF-Ukraine will give priority to applicants from the following fields, which are relevant for Ukraine’s pressing needs and have strong representation within MIT:
- Economic development
- Housing and urban planning
- Energy, advanced materials, and infrastructure (especially nuclear and sustainable forms of energy)
- Computer science (especially in the areas of digital transformation, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence)
- Prosthetics engineering
- Logistics
Application is not limited to these fields, and scholars from other fields are also welcome to apply, so long as their fields are represented at MIT.
All applications must be written by the candidates themselves. No applications from ChatGPT or other artificial machine learning source will be acceptable. Semi-finalists will also be requested to upload a 1-minute video explaining their research and teaching interests. At the final stage, the GMAF-Ukraine faculty committee will hold half-hour interviews with the finalist candidates.
The application process for AY2024-2025 is now closed.
News
This fall, we've welcomed our newest GMAF-Ukraine fellow, Dr. Nataliia Fihurka, on MIT campus. Dr. Fihurka is spending this semester advancing her research in the Multifunctional Metamaterials Lab, Department of Mechanical Engineering, under Dr. Svetlana Boriskina’s mentorship. Dr. Fihurka attained her PhD in Polymer Chemistry at the Lviv Polytechnic National University in Ukraine. Her research focuses on synthetic and natural hydrogels, and on synthesis of functionalized polymers and nanoparticles.
Aside from conducting her scientific research, Dr. Fihurka and her colleagues from the Lviv Polytech have been working on a voluntary basis to produce hydrogel dressings for the needs of Ukraine’s Armed Forces. With the help of volunteer students and charitable organizations covering the cost of raw materials, Dr. Fihurka’s team was able to send more than 200,000 medical products to military and civilian hospitals, as well as to military brigades to supplement soldiers’ first aid kits.
