Hertz Foundation Awards 4 MIT-Affiliated Students 5-Year Fellowships
Updated
Updated · MIT News · Jun 11
Hertz Foundation Awards 4 MIT-Affiliated Students 5-Year Fellowships
3 articles · Updated · MIT News · Jun 11
Summary
Four MIT-affiliated students were named 2026 Hertz Fellows, with three current MIT students and one incoming doctoral student among 19 recipients selected nationwide.
Five years of support — a stipend plus full tuition equivalent — gives the fellows unusual freedom to pursue graduate research in robotics, chemistry, AI and operations research.
Annika Marschner will start an MIT PhD after mechanical-engineering work on bioprinting, bio-inspired robotics and surgical technology, while Alvin Q. Meng studies iron-sulfur clusters as an MIT chemistry doctoral student.
Zachary S. Siegel is pursuing AI and robotics research at CSAIL focused on human-like learning and Bayesian reasoning, and incoming student Matthew Wanta will begin operations research after West Point work on autonomous drones and defense manufacturing.
The fellowship, established in 1963, also provides mentoring and networking access to a community of more than 1,300 fellows tied to startups, commercialization and major scientific advances.