For three decades, the Society of Hellman Fellows has provided early-career support to junior faculty across all ten campuses of the University of California. The fellowship, which began in 1995 as a pilot program at UC San Diego and UC Berkeley, was created by Warren and Chris Hellman and their children. It aims to help assistant professors secure funding for research during a critical period before they can access major federal grants.
Frances Hellman, whose experience as a young physicist inspired the program, described the challenges she faced: “I came into UC San Diego as an assistant professor in 1987 and had a certain level of startup funds, and spent those on getting my lab built,” Hellman said. “I then went through this period of time almost all young faculty go through where you’ve used up your startup funds but you haven’t yet gotten the major funding you need to get tenure.”
The program quickly expanded to all UC campuses. In 2020, after 25 years of operation, the Hellman family established an endowment with a $125 million gift to ensure its continuation.
According to former UCSF chancellor Michael Bishop, “Warren made it possible for many people who otherwise might not have made it to have thrived. Some of the things they [young faculty] were doing really stretched the boundaries of what I would consider academia in a way that I thought was admirable, terrific.”
University of California Provost and Executive Vice President Katherine Newman commented on the impact: “Hellman fellowships have been instrumental in supporting thousands of our junior faculty as they become leaders in their fields, shaping scholarship across the arts, medicine and sciences. 30 years on, we can see clearly the enormous impact of the Hellman family’s gift not only to UC, but to the nation. We are eternally grateful to the Hellmans and excited to witness the transformational research contributed by these fellows.”
Each fellow receives up to $70,000 in support. Recipients have gone on to achieve recognition from organizations such as MacArthur Foundation and Guggenheim Foundation and election into national academies.
Former fellows include Asmeret Asefaw Berhe from UC Merced who stated: “The Hellman award allowed my lab to collect essential preliminary data that we used to demonstrate the significance of our proposed work for a major federal grant,” Berhe said. “This kind of funding enables early career researchers to conduct the foundational work that sets our research programs up for long-term success.” Berhe is now recognized nationally for her expertise in earth sciences.
Other notable alumni include Peidong Yang at UC Berkeley; Dan Choe at UC Davis; Steve Mahler at UC Irvine; Yvonne Chen at UCLA; Victoria Reyes at UC Riverside; Lei Liang at UC San Diego; Dr. Kirsten Bibbings-Domingo at UCSF; Michelle O’Malley at UC Santa Barbara; and Rebecca Covarrubias at UC Santa Cruz.
The fellowship continues supporting advances across disciplines such as space exploration, disease research, addiction science, music composition, cancer therapy development, educational equity studies, among others.
