NLM logo

Get Involved: Fellowship

A White woman outdoors in the snow and a White woman with red hair.
A White man and a White woman.
A White woman in a lab coat and a young White woman.

The NLM Michael E. DeBakey Fellowship in the History of Medicine

The NLM Michael E. DeBakey Fellowship in the History of Medicine provides individual awards of up to $10,000 to U.S. citizens and permanent residents to support research in the collection of the National Library of Medicine (NLM).

The NLM Michael E. DeBakey Fellowship in the History of Medicine was established in 2016 through support from The DeBakey Medical Foundation.

Spanning eleven centuries, the NLM collection encompasses a variety of digital and physical formats and originates from nearly every part of the globe. The collection includes the Michael E. DeBakey papers—representing the diverse areas in which Dr. DeBakey made a lasting impact, such as surgery, medical education, and health care policy—along with the papers of many other luminaries in science and medicine.

Supported research may be conducted onsite at the NLM by studying the collection in the NLM Reading Room, or remotely using NLM digital resources, including not only its digitized and born-digital collections but also its datasets. Projects embracing methods and tools of the digital humanities are welcome. Applicants are expected to complete their work according to their proposal and within their fellowship year.

Support for research in collections that are intellectually related to those of the NLM will be considered, but the overall proposed research must be primarily rooted in the NLM collection.

For the 2026 cycle of the fellowship, we welcome applicants justifying support for their research using the NLM collection based on needs such as:

  • dedicated time to complete research and/or writing, including organizing, reviewing, and preparing collected research materials for a scholarly/interpretative publication.
  • securing research and/or technical assistance for data and/or database analyses.
  • analyzing and interrogating NLM’s digitized collections, web archive collections and/or historical datasets.
  • preparing an open-access scholarly/interpretative digital publication, including work associated with incorporating images, video, audio, and/or manipulatable element(s) intended to enhance access and understanding by readers.
  • payment of reproduction and/or permission fees for images of unique or rare materials essential for the applicant’s research.

We encourage applicants seeking support for digital and data-driven research to consult with the appropriate colleagues in their institution, or the CORE repository of Humanities Commons, to meet the terms of the NIH Public Access Policy for NIH supported work.

Requirements of the Fellowship

Fellows receiving an award for onsite research at the NLM are expected to make at least one visit within their fellowship year.

Within a year following completion of their research, all fellows are expected to author one guest article for NLM’s Circulating Now blog based on their research.

Additionally, NLM Michael E. DeBakey Fellows are required to:

  • consult with NLM staff to improve the library’s existing finding aids and related resources by enhancing the Library’s knowledge of its collection and ability to provide informed access to it;
  • meet the terms of the NIH Public Access Policy for NIH supported work, and acknowledge the NLM Michael E. DeBakey Fellowship in the History of Medicine in any resulting publications;
  • respond to requests for interviews and information, in cooperation with the NLM.

Selected fellows may be invited to present an annual NLM Michael E. DeBakey Lecture in the History of Medicine, as part of the NLM History Talks.

How to Apply

Submit all required materials to the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences (FAES) via the online application portal by midnight ET, September 30, 2025. Selected fellows will be notified and awards will be announced in December.

Any U.S. citizen or permanent resident age eighteen or over, of any academic discipline and status, who has not previously received this Fellowship, is invited to apply. Fellowships will be awarded to individual applicants, not to institutions. Group applications will be considered but will be subject to a maximum award of $10,000 for the entire project regardless of the number of participants. Group applications should be submitted under the name of a single principal researcher.

Your application package must include the following:

  • CV including your preferred email address (not more than three pages)
  • Research Project Abstract, Methods, and Anticipated Research Outcomes, including brief mention of how you became aware of the NLM DeBakey Fellowship program, as well as anticipated publications and, if applicable, data preservation (not more than 1500 words)
  • Bibliography (not more than two pages, including the specific NLM collections you plan to study, onsite and/or digital, and selected (4-5) key secondary works which directly inform your research)
  • Proposed Research Budget (include all anticipated costs, use the S. General Services Administration (GSA) Per Diem Rates as a helpful guide for expenses, note that the awarded funding for selected fellows will be based on the expenses listed in the submitted research budget including those based on core needs)
  • Transcript (required for currently enrolled students only)
  • Two Letters of Support (at least one of which must be from someone familiar with the proposed project)

Explore NLM historical collections, web archives, and related datasets, and use our research tools.

For all other inquiries contact NLM Customer Support or call 1-888-346-3656 Monday through Friday 9:00 am-5:00 pm ET.

NLM Michael E. DeBakey Fellows in the History of Medicine

Open All
Michael DeBakey standing in blue scrubs and a white lab coat with his hands on his hips.

Michael E. DeBakey, 1980

Courtesy Aaron Shikler

About Michael E. DeBakey

The NLM Michael E. DeBakey Fellowship in the History of Medicine is made possible through a gift from The DeBakey Medical Foundation. Michael E. DeBakey (1908–2008) was a legendary American surgeon, educator, and medical statesman. During a career spanning 75 years, his work transformed cardiovascular surgery, raised medical education standards, and informed national health care policy. He performed some of the first heart transplants and pioneered dozens of operative procedures such as aneurysm repair, coronary bypass, and endarterectomy, which routinely save thousands of lives each year. His inventions included the roller pump (a key component of heart-lung machines), as well as artificial hearts and ventricular assist pumps. He was a driving force in building Houston's Baylor University College of Medicine into a premier medical center, where he trained several generations of top surgeons from all over the world. Michael DeBakey was instrumental in bringing NLM to the NIH campus and served for many years on NLM’s Board of Regents.

Learn more about Michael E. DeBakey from NLM’s Profiles in Science.

Last Reviewed: May 5, 2025