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NASA Hubble Fellowship Program Announces 24 New Postdoctoral Scientists for 2026 Class

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NASA Hubble Fellowship Program Names 24 New Fellows for 2026 Class

The NASA Hubble Fellowship Program (NHFP) has named 24 new fellows for its 2026 class. This prestigious program supports postdoctoral scientists pursuing independent research in NASA Astrophysics.

Over 650 applicants competed for the 2026 fellowships, resulting in an oversubscription rate of 27 to 1. Each fellowship provides up to three years of support at a U.S. institution.

Fellows are assigned to one of three distinct sub-categories, aligning with NASA's overarching scientific questions in astrophysics:

  • Einstein Fellows: These researchers focus on fundamental questions about how the universe works.
  • Hubble Fellows: Their work centers on understanding how the universe evolved over cosmic time.
  • Sagan Fellows: This category explores the profound question of whether life exists elsewhere beyond Earth.

Shawn Domagal-Goldman, Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters, stated that the 2026 class will contribute significantly to NASA's research objectives and enhance U.S. academic institutions' impact in space-based astrophysics.

2026 NHFP Awardees, Institutions, and Research Topics:

Einstein Fellows:

  • Hollis Akins, Princeton University: "Charting the Growth of the First Supermassive Black Holes through 'Little Red Dots'"
  • Dhayaa Anbajagane, Stanford University: "Building a Multi-Probe Approach to Primordial Physics"
  • Hannah Gulick, California Institute of Technology: "Probing Compact Object Demographics with a New Generation of Space-Based Observatories"
  • Casey Lam, Carnegie Observatories: "A Portrait of Galactic Black Hole Demographics"
  • Benjamin Lehmann, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: "New Tools for Dark Matter Physics"
  • Sizheng Ma, Johns Hopkins University: "Listening Beyond the Ring: A New Paradigm for Black Hole Spectroscopy"
  • Megan Masterson, Harvard University: "The Dynamic Astronomical Sky as a Probe of Supermassive Black Holes"
  • Simona Miller, City University of New York: "Probing High-mass Binary Black Hole Formation and Fundamental Physics with the Remnants of our Cosmos' Most Extreme Collisions"
  • Martijn Oei, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory: "The Widespread Impact of Megaparsec-scale Jets on the Cosmic Web"
  • Frank Qu, Stanford University: "Mapping Dark Matter and Baryons Across the Universe with the Cosmic Microwave Background"

Hubble Fellows:

  • James Beattie, Institute for Advanced Study: "The Glue Between the Stars: Unraveling Turbulence and Magnetism Across All Scales"
  • Vedant Chandra, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: "Dark Matter at the Threshold of Galaxy Formation"
  • Roman Gerasimov, University of Notre Dame: "New Frontiers in Galactic Archaeology"
  • Jared Goldberg, Columbia University: "Massive Stars, Inside and Out: Bridging 1D and 3D Models of Stars and Supernovae"
  • Vasily Kokorev, University of Texas at Austin: "The Cosmic Frontier: Uncovering Faint Galaxies that Ignited the Early Universe"
  • Konstantinos Kritos, Stony Brook University: "Unveiling the Mystery of Massive Black Hole Seeds Through Gravitational and Electromagnetic Waves"
  • Anna O'Grady, Carnegie Mellon University: "Stay Close to Go Far: Resolved Stellar Populations in Nearby Galaxies as Critical Benchmarks for Binary Evolution Models"
  • David Setton, Johns Hopkins University: "A Multi-Wavelength View of Quenching Across Cosmic Time"

Sagan Fellows:

  • Hayley Beltz, University of Kansas: "From Magnetic Fields to Measurable Signals: 3D MHD Modeling of Sub-Jovian Exoplanets"
  • Rachel Bowens-Rubin, Harvard University: "From Ice Giants to Exorings: New Frontiers in Exoplanet Characterization with JWST & Roman CGI Direct Imaging"
  • Collin Cherubim, University of Chicago: "Mass Fractionation in the Escaping Atmospheres of Small Planets, and the Hunt for Helium and Oxygen Worlds"
  • Arvind Gupta, University of Arizona: "Securing the Doppler Legacy in the Hunt for Earth-like Exoplanets"
  • Henrik Kneirim, California Institute of Technology: "Decoding the Formation of Extreme Giant Planets"
  • Samantha Scibelli, National Radio Astronomy Observatory: "Zooming in on Prebiotic Chemistry at the Earliest Stage of Low-mass Star and Planet Formation"

The NHFP holds an annual symposium where fellows present their research and engage with scientific and administrative staff. The 2025 symposium, held at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, covered diverse topics such as exoplanet atmospheric chemistry, early galaxies, and cosmic expansion mapping.