J-WAFS Fellowships
Nomination letters and complete application packets are due to J-WAFS no later than 5:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, March 3, 2026.
The Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS) was founded in 2014 as an effort to amplify MIT’s research in the water and food sectors in order to respond to the urgent global water and food challenges faced by our human community. J-WAFS catalyzes MIT research, innovation, and technology for ensuring safe and resilient supplies of water and food while reducing environmental impact, to meet the local and global needs of a rapidly expanding and evolving population on a changing planet.
J-WAFS is offering the following one-semester graduate student fellowship for the 2026-2027 academic year:
The Rasikbhai L. Meswani Fellowship for Water Solutions is a doctoral fellowship for students pursuing research related to water and water supply at MIT. One outstanding student will be selected to receive fellowship support; the fellowship currently covers one academic semester. Through it we seek to support an MIT student who is conducting research that advances solutions to critical challenges in water availability, quality, and management across diverse contexts. This fellowship was made possible by Elina and Nikhil Meswani and family.
Eligibility
Students eligible to be nominated for a Meswani Fellowship must be MIT PhD students who are graduating no earlier than May of 2027. (Please note that no portion of awarded fellowships can be used for continuing postdoctoral appointments or other nondegree support if an awardee graduates early or before spending down the fellowship award). Students must have passed their qualifying exams by the nomination deadline, March 3, 2026. Nominees should be engaged in research focused on alleviating problems of water availability, quality, and management or other solutions-based research and innovation related to the water sector.
J-WAFS seeks students with outstanding academic credentials for this fellowship; candidates should be able to demonstrate a GPA of 4.5 or higher. They should also have a clear research question and plan that they are actively pursuing.
Eligible students must be in residence at MIT during the fellowship award period. The selected fellow will be awarded one semester of funding.
Nomination Process
Application to the Meswani Fellowship is by faculty nomination. Each MIT faculty member is invited to nominate one outstanding PhD student for consideration. Nominees may be enrolled in any PhD program at MIT. They should be working in an area of water with a focus on solutions-based research and discovery, as demonstrated by a submitted statement of interest, subjects taken, and proposed research area.
Nomination letters and complete application packets are due to J-WAFS no later than 5:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, March 3, 2026.
Click the button below for more information and submission instructions.
“This fellowship support has afforded me the freedom and ability to pursue impactful water treatment research that may not have otherwise been funded or explored. This work has directly led to research and development that is actively being translated into a company that aspires to bring clean water to remote communities worldwide."
——Jonathan Bessette, PhD student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2024-2025 Rasikbhai L. Meswani Fellow for Water Solutions
