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About the Fellowship

The Peter J. Eloranta Fellowships are awarded to MIT undergraduates for interesting and novel research of student-initiated ideas developed outside the normal curriculum.  Each individual fellowship is $6,000.  The Eloranta Summer Fellowship Committee makes the award based on its review of submitted proposals and  looks for WOW Quality: Well-written, Original, and Workable.  The stipend may be used to cover living expenses, travel, and/or materials and services costs.

Fellowship History

The Eloranta Fellowships were established in 1969 thanks to a gift from the late Dr. Edwin H. Land, founder of the Polaroid Corporation and inventor of instant photography. The Fellowships were created in memory of Peter J. Eloranta, a member of the MIT Class of 1968, and the only son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Vaite Eloranta. Mr. Eloranta was an employee of the Polaroid Corporation when it was headed by Dr. Land.

Dr. Land's aim in establishing this award was to encourage undergraduate creativity and stimulate involvement in a broader range of intellectual activity than is normally possible during the term.  Land expressed this idea of a personal research project for all students in his “Generation of Greatness” address at MIT, which helped inspire these fellowships as well as the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP).

Eligibility

All MIT undergraduates (including seniors planning to graduate in June) are eligible to apply for the summer research fellowships.

Prior Project Examples

The following descriptions of prior Fellowship recipients can help to illustrate the creative intellectual qualities sought for in this award.

Engineering: 

• Example 1:  Development, construction, and flight test of a novel vertical Takeoff Aircraft Concept

• Example 2: Development of strategies and techniques to ensure clean drinking water in an area environmentally affected by gold-mining processes in Honduras.

Science:

• Example 1:  A chemistry project investigating previously unexplored issues surrounding anomalies found in the electrolytic oxidation of aluminum.

• Example 2: Development of a biological register through the application of site-specific Recombination for the Construction of Biological Memory.

Humanities:

• Example 1:  A creative writing project to produce a collection of short stories as a means for preserving the oral heritage of Karanga people of Southern Zimbabwe.
  
• Example 2: An anthropological study of Traditional Life and Technological Change with the Dine people.

Arts:

• Example 1: Development of screen-play and storyboards for a film about the relationship of a young man and his father surrounding the father’s possible involvement with the Viet Cong during the Vietnam Conflict.

• Example 2:  Development of a novel glass sculpture installation for exhibit at MIT.

See Prior Winners for a list of former recipients names.