Neil Gehrels Prize Postdoctoral Fellowship

The JSI Prize Postdoctoral Fellowship is an internationally advertised position to support an early career scientist to work on scientific topics that are the focus of the Joint Space Science Institute. Current areas of interest to JSI include strong gravity, gravitational waves, black holes, high-energy and plasma astrophysics, particle astrophysics, and cosmology.

Beginning with the 2018-19 academic year, the fellowship has been renamed the Neil Gehrels Prize Postdoctoral Fellowship in honor of Neil Gehrels, who was key figure in the establishment of the JSI and was active in working with students and early career scientists to further their aspirations.

Prize Postdocs are free to pursue research topics of their own choosing. They are assigned mentors appropriate for their research interests from the JSI Fellows at the University of Maryland and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and typically interact with scientists both at the University and Goddard.

The Fellowship is for two years with a third year possible by mutual agreement.  It may be held at the same time as a NASA Hubble or Einstein Fellowship, in which case fellowship support is extended to subsequent years.  The announcement for the position normally appears in the Fall. The position includes a yearly salary and research stipend as well as benefits, including comprehensive health care.

Neil Gehrels Prize Postdoctoral Fellows

JSI Prize Postdoctoral Fellows

  • Geoffrey Ryan (2017–2020 ) — Postdoc at Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
  • Nathan Roth (2016–2020) — Postdoc LLNL
  • Erin Kara (2015–18) – Became Neil Gehrels Prize Postdoctoral Fellow in 2018 (see above)
  • Ke Fang (2015–18) – Einstein Fellow at Stanford (2018-20); Faculty at University of Wisconsin since 2020
  • Zach Etienne (2013–14) – Faculty at West Virginia University since 2014
  • Laura Blecha (2012–17) – Also Einstein Fellow (2012-15); Faculty at University of Florida since 2017
  • Scott Field (2011–14) – Faculty at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth since 2016