Texas A&M University has a new offer for students who are named Finalists for the prestigious Hertz Fellowship: Join Texas A&M for graduate school and receive a full Texas A&M Chancellor’s Fellowship with a stipend of $40,000 per year and covering all tuition and fees for up to five years.
Every year, the nonprofit Hertz Foundation selects 40–60 Finalists from a pool of approximately 1,000 applicants for the Hertz Fellowships in applied science, mathematics and engineering. The selection process involves a preliminary screening and a subsequent hour-long technical interview. Finalists are chosen for their scientific and technical knowledge, creative problem-solving abilities, commitment to applying research to solve real-world problems, leadership skills, and potential for lifelong achievement.
“We have a unique and rigorous way of evaluating students, and the Hertz Fellowship Finalists in our selection process are all extremely talented, creative, special people,” says Derek Haseltine, the director of the Hertz Fellowship Program. “We are incredibly pleased to see an institution stepping up to offer them support.”
If a Finalist accepts the Texas A&M offer and is subsequently selected as a Hertz Fellow, the Hertz Foundation will augment the Texas A&M Chancellor’s Fellowship with an additional $11,000 per year, plus the Hertz Foundation will provide an additional $5,000 per year if the Fellow has dependent children.
This new partnership highlights the commitment of both organizations to support the nation’s most promising young minds in science and technology. It builds off a similar partnership the Hertz Foundation established with Case Western Reserve University in 2024.
“Texas A&M University is committed to attracting and supporting the brightest minds in science and engineering. By offering this prestigious fellowship opportunity to Hertz Finalists, we are reinforcing our dedication to fostering groundbreaking research and innovation. This new opportunity will be administered through the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study at Texas A&M, where they will be mentored by a member of the National Academies. We look forward to welcoming these outstanding scholars and providing them with mentoring, resources and the collaborative environment they need to realize their incredible potential,” says Alan Sams, executive vice president and provost for Texas A&M.
The partnership was spearheaded by John Junkins and Richard (Dick) Miles, both University Distinguished Professors of aerospace engineering at Texas A&M and members of the National Academy of Engineering.
“This partnership between the Hertz Foundation and Texas A&M University is very innovative and exciting. The combination of the Hertz Fellowship program and the Chancellor’s STEM Ph.D. will attract and provide nation-leading financial support for a sequence of extraordinarily capable Ph.D. students,” said Junkins, who is also the founding director of the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study.
Miles is both a Hertz Fellow and a long-standing member of the Hertz Foundation Board of Directors. He attended Stanford University as an undergraduate and stayed at Stanford for his Ph.D. on nonlinear optics, supported by a Hertz Fellowship. He graduated in 1972 and joined the faculty at Princeton University that year. In 2011, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering for his work developing laser-based flow field diagnostics and contributions to hypersonic testing technologies. In 2013, he retired from his Princeton academic position and subsequently joined Texas A&M, where he continues to conduct research in laser applications to aerospace.
“I have been greatly impressed to see how Texas A&M operates on a completely different scale than either Stanford or Princeton — my two previous institutions — with ten times the student body and major commitments to faculty support and facilities, leveraged by the state and the federal government, providing unique opportunities for Ph.D. research,” added Miles. “This new Texas A&M program echoes the opportunity provided by Case Western Reserve University and serves to recognize the outstanding quality of those individuals selected as Hertz Fellowship Finalists. I hope that the partnership will inspire other institutions to offer similar opportunities and motivate promising students to apply for the Hertz Fellowship.”
Other connections between the two organizations include Hertz Fellows Michael Anshelevich and Ken Dykema, both professors of mathematics at Texas A&M, and Hertz Fellow George Pharr, a professor of materials science and engineering at Texas A&M.
For the Hertz Foundation, the partnership with Texas A&M adds to a growing list of partnerships with influential organizations in science, technology, national security and philanthropy. In recent years, the foundation has partnered with Gates Foundation, Hertz Corporation, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 10x Genomics and Innovation Tri-Valley Leadership Group, among other organizations, to enhance the Hertz Fellowship experience.
Fifty-two 2025 Hertz Fellowship Finalists were announced Feb. 5, and the 2025 Hertz Fellowship class will be announced in May.
About Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University is a community of scholars dedicated to solving diverse, real-world problems through determination and innovation. It has many top-ranked graduate programs in engineering, biology, mathematics and the physical sciences. In addition, the university has a strong focus on interdisciplinary sciences and addressing the grand challenges of society through collaborative research. Texas A&M opened its doors in 1876 as the state’s first public institution of higher education and is today a tier-one research institution holding the elite triple land-, sea- and space-grant designations. The Texas A&M University System encompasses 11 separate universities, with Texas A&M University, located in College Station, as the flagship institution with a student body of 72,560 including undergraduate and graduate students. Research expenditures now exceed $1.2 billion per year, and 56 faculty members are in one or more of the three National Academies (Science, Engineering and Medicine). Prior to 1965, all undergraduate students were in the Corps of Cadets ROTC program. Since then, the student body has significantly grown and greatly diversified. In 2022, Texas A&M was designated as a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI). The Corps of Cadets at present includes more than 2,000 members of the undergraduate student body. Many of the traditions associated with the Corps have been maintained, predominantly reflected in the monthly silver taps ceremony for deceased students, the university band, athletic events and the university’s commitment to serving the nation. Texas A&M’s current students and over half a million former students are known for their commitment to service, as well as their dedication to the university’s core values and rich traditions.
About the Hertz Foundation
Founded in 1957, the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation accelerates solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges, from enhancing national security to improving human health. Through the Hertz Fellowship, the Foundation identifies the nation’s most promising young innovators and disruptors in science and technology, empowering them to become the future leaders who keep our country safe and secure. Today, a community of 1,305 Hertz Fellows is a powerful, solution-oriented network of our nation’s top scientific minds, working to address complex problems and contributing to the economic vitality of our country. Learn more at HertzFoundation.org.
