Princeton University graduate student Zain Zaidi, a Ph.D. student in chemistry, has been awarded a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. This merit-based program supports outstanding immigrants and children of immigrants pursuing graduate education in the United States.
Zaidi is one of 30 fellows selected from a pool of more than 3,000 applicants chosen for their “potential to make significant contributions to the United States,” the Soros program said. Fellows receive up to $90,000 in funding for their graduate studies.
Born in Saudi Arabia to parents of Pakistani descent, Zaidi immigrated to the United States with his family when he was 2 and grew up in Coppell, Texas. In May 2025, he earned his Bachelor of Science in chemistry with a specialization in chemical physics at Stony Brook University. As an undergraduate, he was recognized with a 2024 Barry Goldwater Scholarship, the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence, and induction to Phi Beta Kappa.
Now a first-year graduate student, Zaidi is studying theoretical and computational chemistry under the guidance of Joseph Subotnik, professor of chemistry. His goal is to advance novel renewable energy technologies through theoretical work on energy transfer within and between molecules and materials. Zaidi hopes the unconventional approach being developed in the Subotnik lab to understand how electrons and atoms behave will “make it possible to tackle problems in chemistry that have been out of reach theoretically for a very long time.”
In addition to being selected as a Soros fellow, Zaidi has recently been named a finalist for a 2026 Hertz Fellowship, a highly competitive award for students in the applied sciences, mathematics and engineering. He intends to pursue a career in academia as a principal investigator at a major research university.
The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans program was founded in 1998 by Hungarian immigrants and philanthropists Paul and Daisy Soros. Fellows are selected based on “their achievements, potential to make meaningful contributions to the United States, and their dedication to the ideals of America represented in the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.”
