Overview

Since 1988, William V. Shannon Memorial Fellowships have provided nationals of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland financial support to pursue graduate study at Boston University.  William V. Shannon Memorial Fellowships were established in memory of William V. Shannon, US Ambassador to Ireland from 1977 to 1981 and University Professor and Professor of History at Boston University.

Mr. Shannon was born in Worcester, Massachusetts of Irish immigrants.  He graduated magna cum laude from Clark University in 1947 and the following year received a master's degree in American history from Harvard University.  One of his professors, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., called him "the most brilliant student I ever had."  Later, he edited the Theodore Roosevelt Papers at MIT.

He was a fellow at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara, Calif., from 1961 to 1962, and a reporter for the New York Post from 1962 to 1964.  In 1964, he joined the editorial board of the New York Times, a position he held until he was appointed United States Ambassador to Ireland.  At the New York Times, he wrote political and environmental editorials and columns.   In 1969, he won an Alicia Patterson Fellowship for journalists and spent the year in London observing the British Parliament.  After leaving Dublin in the spring of 1981, Mr. Shannon joined the faculty of the University Professors program at Boston University, teaching a course on the American presidency and conducting graduate seminars in journalism.  Beginning in 1981 and until his death in 1988, he wrote a weekly column and editorials on domestic and foreign affairs.

Shannon's work appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, the New Republic, The New York Times Magazine and The Economist, among others.  His books include The Heir Apparent (a biography of Robert Kennedy), They Could Not Trust the King (an account of the Watergate hearings) and The American Irish (a history of Irish immigration to the United States).  Shannon also co-authored with Robert S. Allen Our Sovereign State and the best-selling The Truman Merry-Go-Round.

He received numerous awards including the New York Newspaper Guild's Page One Award for his coverage of the McCarthy-Army hearings in Washington in 1954, the Edward J. Meeman Award of the Scripps-Howard Foundation for conservation writing and the Gold Medal of the Eire Society. 

Eligibility

Applicants must be nationals of the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland and must have earned a first or upper-second class degree by the time of application.

For the 2002 competition, applicants must be full time post graduate students working towards a Ph.D. in Physics in any University in Ireland.  William V. Shannon Memorial Fellows must join an existing research group in the Physics Department at Boston University.  There are no restrictions on the sub-field of physics studied, so long as the sub-field is represented at Boston University.  A list of suitable sub-fields available at Boston University, and details about the department's research, can be found on the Department of Physics web site.  All questions concerning the research should be addressed to Professor Kevin Smith, Department of Physics, Boston University, 590 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215 or ksmith@bu.edu.

Application Process

There is no standard application form; however, applicants must submit all of the following material to Elizabeth Shannon, The William V. Shannon Memorial Fellowships, 25 Lenox Street, Brookline, Massachusetts 02446 or eshannon@bu.edu, by November 1:

• Curriculum Vitae
• Three letters of recommendation, including a letter from the head of the Physics Department of the applicant's  university or editor
• One personal letter of recommendation
• A brief statement from the applicant stating why he or she wishes to study at Boston University and identifying which research group he or she wishes to join.

Award

The Fellowship includes a stipend of $18,750 for room and board expenses while living in Boston, and covers fees associated with attending Boston University.