The Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions (IAIFI, pronounced /aɪ-faɪ/) is one of the inaugural NSF AI research institutes. The IAIFI is enabling physics discoveries and advancing foundational AI through the development of novel AI approaches that incorporate first principles, best practices, and domain knowledge from fundamental physics. AI is transforming many aspects of society, including the ways that scientists are pursuing groundbreaking discoveries.

To facilitate these advances, the IAIFI seeks a talented, promising, and diverse group of researchers at an early stage of their careers to join the IAIFI Fellowship program. The role of an IAIFI Fellow is to spark vital interdisciplinary, multi-investigator, multi-subfield collaborations across the primary IAIFI thrusts of theoretical physics, experimental physics, and foundational AI. Such collaborations have immense power to generate new ideas and approaches in both physics and AI, to facilitate abstracting physics challenges beyond their native domains to inform the development of cutting-edge AI tools, and to instill a common language across disciplines. Our program aims to appoint new postdoctoral IAIFI Fellows each academic year, for a three-year fellowship term each.

Fellows will be selected through an annual application process. Applicants should have, or be expected to receive by the 1st of September 2025, a PhD in Physics, Statistics, Computer Science, or a related field. Complete applications must include:

• Cover letter (no more than 1 page);
• CV (1-2 pages recommended, but longer accepted);
• Statement of research interests (no more than 2 pages);
• List of publications;
• Exactly three reference letters.

The deadline to receive all the materials (including all reference letters) is the 9th of October 2024.

The Fellows will have substantial freedom in choosing their research focus; each fellow will work with two IAIFI mentors – one from Physics and one from AI – to guide their choice of research topic and evaluate their research progress. Part of the application will include identifying IAIFI faculty whom you feel would be a good match for your research goals. The IAIFI is committed to building a culturally diverse intellectual community, and strongly encourages applications from members of historically marginalized groups. Any inquiries about the program should be directed to iaifi-fellows@mit.edu. Answers to frequently asked questions can be found at https://iaifi.org/fellows.html#faq.

The IAIFI is a joint NSF-funded venture between MIT, Harvard, Northeastern, and Tufts. Fellows are encouraged to collaborate with other IAIFI members. All Fellows are granted work space at MIT. In addition, Fellows can be affiliated with and have work space at any of the four Boston-area IAIFI universities.

MIT is an equal employment opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, ancestry, or national or ethnic origin. MIT’s full policy on Nondiscrimination can be found here. Employment is contingent upon the completion of a satisfactory background check, including verifying any finding of misconduct (or pending investigation) from prior employers.