Post-Doctoral and Student Research Opportunities

A hallmark of ISN research is an interdisciplinary team approach to scientific exploration. Principal investigators, often more than one from different academic departments, lead teams of MIT post-doctoral associates, graduate students, and undergraduate students in performing trailblazing research for the benefit of Soldiers and other warfighters.
A student rests against a column outside Building 10, where the Great Dome is. A student rests against a column outside Building 10, where the Great Dome is. Photo by Gretchen Ertl

Although post-docs and students play a vital role in ISN research, the ISN is an Army-sponsored University-Affiliated Research Center (UARC) and one of the MIT Laboratories, Centers, and Institutes reporting to the MIT Vice President for Research; it is not an academic department, cannot admit students, and cannot confer degrees.

In order to participate in ISN research, post-docs and students must be assigned to an ISN project by an ISN-affiliated faculty member or research scientist leading one.

The first step in this process is to join the MIT community as a post-doc or student.

Post-doc positions are usually included with other open employment opportunities in listings on the MIT Careers page. For more information, and other methods of finding open post-doctoral positions, the MIT Postdoctoral Services website may be helpful.

Potential graduate students should apply to the MIT academic department of their choice. Because MIT uses a decentralized graduate admissions system, whereby individual academic departments have their own applications processes and admit their own students, a good place to start for generalized informat is the MIT Office of Graduate Education, especially its Graduate Admissions information page. After joining MIT as a graduate student, those interested in working on an ISN project should reach out to an ISN-affiliated MIT faculty member or research scientist about joining their research group.

Potential undergraduate students should follow the regular process for applying to MIT detailed on the MIT Admissions website. Although most ISN research requires a level of technical knowledge more often found in post-docs and graduate students, the ISN welcomes qualified undergraduates through participation in the MIT Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) and the MIT Advanced Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (SuperUROP).