Summer Research Fellowship (2026)

University of Chicago; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 5,000 - 8,000; Full time

Job summary

The Existential Risk Laboratory (XLab) at the University of Chicago invites applications for the 2026 Summer Research Fellowship (SRF), a 10-week, in-person research program for students and early-career researchers working on AI safety and security, nuclear security, or the confluence of these issues.

This Fellowship offers hands-on opportunities to explore foundational questions at the frontier of risk studies, with mentorship from leading researchers and an emphasis on interdisciplinary

Job description

The Existential Risk Laboratory (XLab) at the University of Chicago is accepting applications for the 2026 Summer Research Fellowship (SRF), a 10-week, in-person research program for students and early-career researchers working on AI safety and security, nuclear security, or the confluence of these issues.

Unlike more established fields, the field of AI safety and security has not yet reached a consensus on what the foundational problems are. The rate at which advances occur together with the youth of the field means that important questions and approaches have likely been overlooked. At the same time, the literature is shallow enough that dedicated junior researchers can reach the intellectual frontier with just months of dedicated work. The confluence of AI and nuclear security is arguably even more neglected — vanishingly few researchers have fluency in both domains, leaving critical questions almost entirely unexamined. And within nuclear security itself, the nonproliferation