The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation is an American non-profit organization that awards prestigious^[3] fellowships to Ph.D. students in the applied physical, biological and engineering sciences. The fellowship provides students with up to $250,000 of support over five years, giving them flexibility and the ability to pursue their own interests, as well as mentoring from alumni fellows.^[4] Fellowship recipients pledge to make their skills available to the United States in times of national emergency.^[5]

In 1957, during the Cold War era, emigrant Jewish-Hungarian John D. Hertz^[6][7] established the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation with the purpose of supporting bright young minds in the applied sciences.^[8] In the political climate of the time with the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union, Hertz's intentions in making this significant contribution towards American scientific excellence were specifically anti-communist. For his significant contribution to the security of the US, Hertz received the highest civilian award given by the Department of Defense in 1958.^[9]

Initially, the Foundation granted undergraduate scholarships to qualified and financially limited mechanical and electrical engineering students. In 1963, the undergraduate scholarship program was phased out and replaced with postgraduate fellowships leading to the award of the Ph.D. The scope of the studies supported by the fellowships was also enlarged to include applied sciences and other engineering disciplines. The intellectual freedom granted by the fellowship was intended to foster "a cross-generational community of research leaders and entrepreneurs." The degree to which this lofty goal has been a success can perhaps be judged by its alumni. Hertz fellows include "Nobel Laureates, CEOs, generals, and best-selling authors."^[6]

With a coterie of some 1,300 recipients over the fellowship's tenure, "[c]onnections among fellows over the years have sparked collaborations in startups, research, and technology commercialization."^[10] With a ceiling approaching $250,000 for fellowship grants, the fellowship is highly competitive. In recent years, respected universities like Case Western Reserve have initiated companion grants to full fund finalists connected with their institutions with full funding in situations in which they are not selected for the final prize, in testament to the quality of those making applications to the Hertz Foundation.^[11]

As of 2024, following a "highly selective" interview process, the Hertz Foundation narrows its field of candidates to approximately 50 finalists for fellowships in applied science, mathematics and engineering. "Recipients must display high academic achievement and the capacity to contribute to the advancement of knowledge in their field."^[12]

15 to 20 of those finalists are named Hertz Fellows and receive up to five years of graduate school funding.^[11]

Hertz Fellowships are highly competitive. For the 2017–2018 academic year, nearly 800 applicants applied for 10 spots, giving it an acceptance rate of 1.5%. Since 1960, the foundation has made awards to more than 1,300 fellows, with (as of 2022) 309 fellows affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; 255 with Stanford University; 104 with the University of California, Berkeley; 95 with the California Institute of Technology; and 76 with Harvard University. These top five universities account for nearly two-thirds of all fellows.^[13]

• Lars Bildsten, Director, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at University of California, Santa Barbara
• Manjul Bhargava, Fields Medalist 2014
• Eric Boe, NASA Astronaut
• Gregory S. Boebinger, physicist, Florida State University
• Stephen P. Boyd, Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University
• Ed Boyden, 2016 Breakthrough Prize
• James E. Brau
• Mung Chiang, Arthur LeGrand Doty Professor at Princeton University, 2013 Alan T. Waterman Award recipient
• Isaac Chuang, quantum computing pioneer
• Kevin M. Esvelt
• Doyne Farmer, an originator of econophysics
• Mike Farmwald, Founder of Rambus
• Alex Filippenko, Richard & Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor in the Physical Sciences and Professor of Astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley
• Kathleen Fisher, Deputy Director at DARPA's Information Innovation Office and Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at Tufts University^[14]
• Alice P. Gast, President, Imperial College of London
• Kenneth M. Golden, Fellow of Explorers Club
• Jeff Gore, physicist and ecologist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Leonidas J. Guibas, researcher in computational geometry and Paul Pigott Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University^[15]
• Nathan Lewis, professor, California Institute of Technology^[16]
• Kevin Karplus, professor, University of California, Santa Cruz
• David Kriegman,^[17] researcher in computer vision and Professor of Computer Science at University of California, San Diego
• Peter Hagelstein, Inventor, X-ray laser
• Danny Hillis, Inventor, entrepreneur, and author
• Andrew Houck, Quantum Computist
• Tianhui Michael Li, first Data Scientist in residence at Andreessen Horowitz, founder of The Data Incubator
• Po-Shen Loh, Coach of USA International Mathematical Olympiad Team and Professor of Mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University
• Derek Lidow, Founder of iSuppli Corp.
• Robert Lourie, Head of Futures research at Renaissance Technologies
• John C. Mather, Nobel Laureate 2006
• Mike Montemerlo, Winning Team Leader, DARPA Grand Challenge 2005
• Nathan Myhrvold, Founder, Intellectual Ventures, former CTO, Microsoft
• Dianne P. O'Leary, applied mathematician
• Sabrina Pasterski, Young Physicist
• General Ellen M. Pawlikowski, Commander, Air Force Material Command
• Emma Pierson, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Cornell University^[18]
• Joseph Polchinski, Fundamental Physics Prize 2017
• William H. Press, Former Deputy Director for Science and Technology, Los Alamos National Laboratory
• Robert Sedgewick, William O. Baker Professor in Computer Science at Princeton University^[19]
• Katelin Schutz
• Kenneth L Shepard
• Ray Sidney, Google entrepreneur
• Alfred Spector, CTO of Two Sigma and former VP of Research at Google^[20]
• Rich C. Staats,^[21] Commanding General, United States Army Reserve Innovation Command^[22]
• Robert Tarjan, Turing Award 1986
• Astro Teller, Director, Google X
• Michael Telson, Former CFO at the Department of Energy
• Lee T. Todd, Jr., Entrepreneur, past president of the University of Kentucky^[23]
• Philip Welkhoff, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
• Christian Wentz, electrical engineer & entrepreneur
• Carl Wieman, Nobel Laureate 2001
• Ned Wingreen

In 2018, some 30 Hertz Fellows were recognized by MIT Technology Review, Forbes, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, National Academy of Sciences and many others for outstanding work in their respective fields.

The Hertz Foundation requires that each Fellow furnish the Foundation a copy of his or her doctoral dissertation upon receiving the Ph.D. The Foundation's Thesis Prize Committee examines the Ph.D. dissertations for their overall excellence and pertinence to high-impact applications of the physical sciences. Each Thesis Prize winner receives an honorarium of $5,000.^[24]

• Hertz Foundation