Updates on the NASA Hubble Fellowship Program

Aneta Siemiginowska

The NASA Hubble Fellowship Program (NHFP) fosters excellence and leadership in astrophysics by supporting exceptionally promising and innovative early-career scientists. Each year, the program awards twenty-four postdoctoral prize fellowships, which have one of three “flavors” according to the fellow’s science interests: Einstein, Hubble, and Sagan. These science flavors respectively correspond broadly to the questions:

The Science Leads for the NHFP are Andy Fruchter at STScI (for the Hubble fellows), Jennifer Burt at JPL (for the Sagan fellows), and myself at the CXC (for the Einstein fellows). The Science leads administer the NHFP application and selection process, organize symposia, guide overall science policies, and support the ongoing productivity of the fellows. Two new Science Leads for the NHFP Sagan and Einstein came on board this year when Dawn Gelino (NExSci) and Paul Green (CXC) stepped down. Both Dawn and Paul made major contributions to the program and supported the fellows in their research activities, and we thank them both for the excellent state they left the program in.

Selection of the 2025 NHFP Fellows

“The 2025 class of the NASA Hubble Fellowship Program is comprised of outstanding NASA Astrophysics researchers.” said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, acting director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This class of competitively-selected fellows will inspire future generations through the products of their research, and by sharing the results of that work with the public. Their efforts will help NASA continue its worldwide leadership in space-based astrophysics research.”
Mosaic of headshot images of all 2025 NHFP Fellows

Each year, we post an announcement of opportunity in September for applications to the NHFP, with a deadline in early November. For fellowships starting in 2025, we received a record of 659 complete applications for 24 postdoctoral positions. Of those, our selection process forwarded about 35% of applications to the 7 topical science panels for discussion. Finally, about 6% of the applications were sent for final ranking to the Merging Panel, which consists of all the topical panel Chairs plus a Merging Panel Chair. We made 32 offers until the 24 available positions were filled. Bios and photos of new 2025 NHFP Fellows were released along with a NASA press release on March 31.

After each year’s selection is complete, the NHFP Science Leads and the diligent STScI Grants administrators (Shantavia Sturgis, Paula Sessa, and Bob Gicking) provide a remote orientation for new fellows. Occurring in late March or early April each year, the orientation enables us to explain policies and benefits, to encourage communication among the fellows, and to answer any questions they may have.

NHFP Symposia

Approximately fifty people stand on a short, wide set of stairs; they are all wearing name badges around their necks and posing for a group photo. A sunny Californian sky is overhead, along with the distinctive brown-orange panels of the side of the Cahill Center.


Figure 1: The group photo from the 2024 NHFP Fellows Symposium showing the fellows and the leads in front of the Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics.

The NHFP hosts a symposium every year for fellows to share their scientific progress and plans, to get to know their peers, and to foster collaborations both in and beyond astrophysics. The 2024 NHFP symposium sponsored by NeXSci (Caltech) took place on Sept 16–20 2024, in the Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Caltech. The details of the Symposium are available on the NeXSci web site. All the science sessions were live-streamed and recorded; videos have been uploaded to the NeXSci web site. Fellows' presentations cover a wide range of topics, including planets in our Solar System and accreting black holes in the distant universe.

At each symposium, there are several non-science sessions that are proposed by the fellows. This year, we hosted a mentoring session by Victoria Molero González (UC Santa Cruz), a career panel featuring discussions with Pradip Gatkine (UCLA), Masha Okounkova (PCC), Heather Knutson (Caltech), and Gwen Rudie (Carnegie), and a session in which the STScI Grants administrators answered fellows' questions about grants and benefits. There was also a tour of JPL for the Symposium participants. To wrap up the week was an incredible open mic session of music, stories, art, dance, and poetry.

The 2025 NHFP Symposium will take place on October 6–10, 2025, at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), located on the Johns Hopkins campus in Baltimore, MD.


This article was prepared by Aneta Siemiginowska with input from the other NHFP Science Leads Andy Fruchter, Jennifer Burt, and Dawn Gelino, NHFP Lead programmer Megan Crane, and NASA NHFP Project Scientists Antonino Cucchiara and Patricia M. Knezek.