Announcing the 2024 Google PhD Fellows

It’s been 15 years since Google launched the PhD Fellowship Program to recognize and support outstanding graduate students pursuing exceptional research in computer science and related fields.

At Google, we firmly believe in the connection between scientific advancement and social impact. We’re committed to supporting PhD students’ fundamental research through funding and mentorship, and see it as vital to transforming the way we approach the toughest problems across foundational science. Over the past 15 years, Google’s PhD Fellowship Program has supported over 800 graduate students from over 210 universities in 53 countries across Africa, Australia, East Asia, Europe, India, Latin America, New Zealand, North America and Southeast Asia.

I'm thrilled the program has been able to champion PhD students at the forefront of scientific advancement around the globe. And today, I'm excited to announce the recipients of the 2024 Google PhD Fellowship program. See the complete list of Google PhD Fellowship recipients for 2024.

As we welcome the 2024 Google PhD Fellows, I also want to take a moment to reflect on the journeys of some of our earliest fellows. Our program fosters a vibrant community of scholars who have gone on to shape the landscape of computer science across academia, industry and entrepreneurship. Their experiences and accomplishments exemplify the impact that passionate researchers can have on technology and society. Here’s what nine Google PhD Fellows from the program’s first year had to say about their experiences.

• Teodora Baluta, Assistant Professor at Georgia Tech: “The Google PhD fellowship, especially in Southeast Asia and India, provides graduate students opportunities for mentorship in and outside of the region, as well as visibility and acknowledgement of the valuable research happening in these regions within the global community.”
• Rendani Mbuvha, Google DeepMind academic fellow at Queen Mary University of London and soon-to-be associate professor at the University of Manchester: “The Google Fellowship was truly a unique opportunity that combined funding support with invaluable research and career mentorship by Google researchers. Through the fellowship, I was not only able to fund research equipment and conferences, but also expand my network of collaborators and mentors, many of whom I still work with today.”
• Hari Narasimhan, Senior Research Scientist at Google Research: “Google's fellowship provided me with much-needed financial assistance at the early stages of my PhD in India. The recognition and exposure that it offered went a long way in determining my career trajectory and played a crucial role in me eventually choosing to build my research career at Google.”
• Carolina Parada, Senior Engineering Director of Google DeepMind’s Robotics team: “The largest impact the fellowship had on me was giving me confidence that the work I was doing was valuable and relevant to Google and industry in general and it was getting noticed. Today, I lead the Google DeepMind Robotics team, where we get to push the boundaries of AI in the physical world, getting closer to this dream of building a truly useful robot capable of helping people with all kinds of physical tasks.”
• Tobias Grosser, Associate Professor at the University of Cambridge: “The process of finding the Google PhD Fellowship, drafting my ideas and asking for feedback from my peers and future supervisor inspired me to define my own independent research agenda early on. Starting my PhD then with the motivation boost of winning my own funding, paired with maximal scientific freedom, budget to travel to the conferences I cared for and an excellent peer-network really added to my PhD.”
• Futoshi Futami, Associate Professor at Osaka University: “This fellowship significantly contributed to my career development through not only financial support, but also mentoring and networking. Notably, it provided me with the opportunity to intern at Google, where I learned about the application of machine learning in ways that my university lab could not offer. This experience greatly inspired my subsequent research.”
• Jungdam Won, Assistant Professor at Seoul National University: “The duration of a PhD program is long enough that unexpected events can occur. The flexible funding provided by the Google Fellowship allows students to manage unforeseen circumstances smoothly. Additionally, the opportunity to communicate with a Google mentor can broaden your perspective on research problems.”
• Ali Farhadi, CEO of AI2 and professor at University of Washington: “Fifteen years later, I still remember the day I found out I’d been awarded the inaugural Google Fellowship. The opportunity not only provided me with the recognition I needed as a graduate student, but it also allowed me to learn about how fundamental research translates into real-world products that benefit billions.”
• Tor Lattimore, Research Scientist at Google DeepMind: “The Google PhD fellowship came at the perfect time in my academic career and allowed me to focus entirely on research at exactly the right moment.”

These fellows have made incredible strides since 2009, and it’s exciting to imagine what may be in store for the newest cohort, too. Here’s to many more years shaping the future of computer science.