ThinkSwiss Research Scholarship

ThinkSwiss offers scholarships for a research stay in Switzerland. It supports highly motivated and qualified U.S. undergraduate and graduate students to do research at a public Swiss university or research institute for 2 to 3 months. The scholarship is open to students of all fields.

Next application deadline: March 2012
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Requirements
To apply for a ThinkSwiss Research Scholarship, you must:

• Be currently enrolled at an accredited U.S. university/college
• Be a graduate student or an undergraduate student who will have completed your sophomore year by the time the research stay in Switzerland begins
• Provide a written confirmation from a professor at a Swiss university that he/she will accept you for a research stay in his/her group

Hilary Landfried and Ryan Luke Johns, ThinkSwiss Scholars 2011, share their experiences in Switzerland - watch the videos!

Scholarship
The ThinkSwiss Research Scholarship program provides a monthly scholarship of CHF 1,050 (approx. USD 1,000) for a period of 2 to 3 months (CHF 3,150 maximum), which covers two thirds of the average student’s living costs. By accepting this scholarship, you agree to participate in a blog to share your experiences during your research stay in Switzerland. After your return to the U.S. you also agree to carry out at least one activity as student “ambassador” to promote Swiss research. Half of the scholarship will be paid at the beginning and half at the end of your research stay, after your final report has been received.

This program does not provide health, accident or liability insurance. Applicants must make sure that they have insurance coverage applicable for their stay in Switzerland.

While German, French or Italian language skills are not required for the research stay in Switzerland, knowledge of any of these languages would be helpful in daily life. The working language will generally be English.

Please send the following documents by e-mail to the contact address below:

• Cover letter, including information about your educational and professional background, goals for your research stay in Switzerland, why you have chosen that particular Swiss university, give one reason why you would make an excellent student “ambassador” and suggest an activity with which you could promote Swiss research at your U.S. university
• Résumé
• Letter of acceptance by a professor at a Swiss university into his/her research group
• A current official university/college transcript
• A letter of reference from a senior academic in your field of study

FAQs

Contact
Embassy of Switzerland, Office of Science, Technology and Higher Education (OSTHE),
2900 Cathedral Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20008
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , Phone: (202) 745-7958

More information about studying in Switzerland:
www.eda.admin.ch/washington/Studying_in_Switzerland
www.sbf.admin.ch/campus-switzerland

Announcement of the 2011 ThinkSwiss Research Scholars

This year ThinkSwiss had a record number of applicants for the 2011 Scholarship. After a long evaluation process that was made very difficult due to the number of excellent applications, ThinkSwiss is proud to announce that following students have been awarded the 2011 ThinkSwiss Research Scholarship:

• Desautels Thomas (California Institute of Technology), ETH Zurich
• Downard Andrew J. (California Institute of Technology), Paul Scherrer Institut / CERN
• Ferdiana Astri (University of Pittsburgh), University of Lucerne
• Johns Ryan Luke (Princeton), ETH Zurich
• Koch Evan (University of Texas), University of Lausanne
• Lam Juan Carlos (Virginia Tech), SUPSI
• Landfried Hilary (Gettysburg College), University of Basel
• LeCroy Chase (Rice), ETH Zurich
• Lin Chenyu (Yale), EPFL
• Marcos-Miguel Nausica (University of Pittsburgh), University of Berne
• Pathak Siddhartha (California Institute of Technology), EMPA
• Qin Xuan (University of Kansas), University of Zurich
• Ramos Charlene (Yale), ETH Zurich
• Robinson Philip (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), EPFL
• Seidner Andrew (Emory), ETH Zurich
• Sibilski Agnes K. (Harvard), IDHEAP Lausanne
• Taneja Harsh (Northwestern), University of Neuchâtel
• Tran Tri-Tinh (UC Irvine), EAWAG 
• Tseng Debbie (California Institute of Technology), University of Zurich
• Yu Joseph Kung (Rice), ETH Zurich
• Zheng Yan (Truman State), ZHAW

ThinkSwiss is excited about the exchange of knowledge and the establishment of networks between ThinkSwiss Research Scholars and Swiss researchers that this Scholarship offers. The whole ThinkSwiss community looks forward to reading about their experiences in Switzerland on the ThinkSwiss Brainstorm Blog.