PhD Fellowship Program Guidelines

Purpose
The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) is committed to creating a vibrant future for the field of occupational safety and health. Towards that end, ASSE has created a PhD fellowship opportunity in conjunction with Oregon State University to fund tuition costs for the doctoral education of two PhD candidates admitted to OSU’s PhD in Public Health program, concentrating in Environment, Safety, and Health.

ASSE wants to ensure that there are enough qualified educators to teach the next generation of occupational safety and health professionals who have been schooled in formal academic research practices and pedagogy.  As a result, this fellowship program is designed to cultivate future educators of occupational safety and health.

This fellowship program is also intended to produce a thread of evidence-based research in the economic and financial analysis of safety-related programs and interventions.  Doctoral candidates will be required to complete a number of research projects to advance this subfield of safety research.

Eligibility Requirements

Basic Requirements: The ASSE PhD fellowship program is only open to applicants who are citizens and permanent residents of the United States. All candidates are required to have attended a higher education program in the United States. Proof of citizenship and a copy of the diploma from a degree obtained in the US will be required upon final offer.  

Acceptance to Oregon State University: In order to apply for this fellowship, the applicant must also apply to Oregon State University’s PhD program in Public Health with a concentration in Environment, Safety, & Health. For more information on the PhD program application requirements, please see the OSU Student Handbook for the PhD in Public Health program. Fellowship applicants must be at or near the beginning of their doctoral education.

Academic and Professional Background: Applicants for this PhD fellowship program may have an academic and professional background in either business or engineering (with an interest in environment, safety, and health) or an environment, safety, and health background (with an interest in business and engineering economic analysis).

Personal Statement and References: In addition to the OSU PhD program application materials, the applicant must submit a fellowship application (doc) including a 2 page personal statement describing why he or she believes occupational safety and health education is important for the nation. In addition, the applicant must produce at least 2 references that can be contacted by OSU to validate the applicant’s intentions to teach and do research in an institute of higher education.

Publication Requirements
Oregon State University’s PhD program requires that all doctoral candidates complete a number of research projects and a manuscript to be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal.  Any students who enroll in OSU’s program concurrently as an ASSE PhD fellow will be required to submit one of their research projects to ASSE for possible publication in ASSE’s journals.

Terms of Appointment
The fellowship recipient must enroll in the PhD program at Oregon State University as a full-time student for a period of three years.

Award Information
The recipient of the fellowship will receive free tuition to Oregon State University’s PhD program subject to the terms below and those of the written fellowship agreement. According to OSU, the PhD in Public Health can be completed by a full-time student in three years. The maximum contribution that will be made towards the fellow’s doctoral education will amount to no more than $18,000 per year. Payment will be made to the recipient on a per-quarter basis. However, in order to ensure that the individuals receiving a fellowship position go into teaching as is stipulated in these program guidelines, payment will be made in the form of a conditional loan. For every full academic year that the student teaches at a university within the United States in an OSH bachelors degree program or higher, one year of the loan will be forgiven. If the student teaches at an institute for higher education for three academic years upon completion of their degree, the entire loan will be forgiven. The fellow will be required to provide a photocopy of his or her contract to serve as evidence that he or she is teaching at a university each year after earning the degree, for a period of three academic years.

A fully-paid fellowship would amount to $18,000 per year, for a period of 3 years amounting to a total value of $54,000.

Evaluation and Selection
Applicants will be evaluated based on their acceptance status to OSU, professional history, research interests, and their personal statement expressing their commitment to teaching occupational safety and health. If selected as a final candidate, the individual will be required to complete an interview either in-person or via telephone with appropriate OSU faculty.

OSU will recommend two candidates to ASSE for final approval. Selection of the candidates is at the sole discretion of OSU and ASSE with no right of appeal.

Application Deadlines and Award Notification
All applications must be postmarked by December 1, 2011 for early decision or March 1, 2012 for regular admissions. All applicants will be notified of their status by April 1, 2012.

Selected candidates will be required to sign a loan agreement documents in connection with this program. The terms and conditions of the loan documents will govern the relationship among the parties and supersede any terms and conditions in this notification.