Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA)

The Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) is proud to announce that William Balmer (they/them) has been named Northwestern University’s first Heising-Simons Foundation 51 Pegasi b Fellow and a member of the The Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) is proud to announce that William Balmer (they/them) has been named No…

We are delighted to announce that six CIERA Postdoctoral Fellows will be joining the CIERA community in Fall 2026. Please join us in extending a warm welcome to these outstanding researchers! William O. Balmer William Balmer (Johns Hopkins University) captures images of exoplanets using powerful telescopes both on the ground and in space. They analyze these observations to better understand the o…

Clearest evidence yet that giant planets spin faster than their cosmic lookalikes For decades, astronomers have struggled to differentiate giant planets from brown dwarfs, a class of objects more massive than planets but too small to ignite nuclear fusion like true stars. Through a telescope, these cosmic lookalikes can have overlapping brightness, temperatures and even atmospheric fingerprints. …

EVANSTON, Ill. — An international team of scientists, including Northwestern University astrophysicists, has detected 128 new gravitational-wave candidates — more than doubling the size of the current catalog. Within the new dataset, the more unusual signals include the heaviest black hole binary detected to date, a binary where both black holes have exceptionally high spins (rotating at nearly 4…

On February 3, 2026, Microbiologist and retired NASA astronaut Kate Rubins visited Northwestern University to give a special seminar on conducting biology in space, from experimental design in microgravity to discovery aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Hosted by

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has named Northwestern University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics member Allison Strom, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, as a recipient of the prestigious Sloan Research Fellowship

The Simons Foundation has named Northwestern University’s Alexander Edison

Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) alumna Sarah Wellons, assistant professor of astronomy at Wesleyan University, has been named a recipient of the 2026 Cottrell Scholar Award

On January 29, 2026, The Center for Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) rang in the new year in time-honored fashion with its annual Research Jamboree and Winter Party. More than 80 Center faculty, postdocs, and graduate students gathered for the Research Jamboree, a fast-paced and interactive event in which each participant had just one minute to present their research. The audience…

Aster Winkler, a participant in CIERA’s 2025 Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program, has received a prestigious Chambliss Astronomy Achievement Student Award from the American Astronomical Society (AAS) for their outstanding poster presentation. Winkler was selected as an award recipient following a competitive, two-stage evaluation process.

CIERA is proud to share that Vicky Kalogera, Director of CIERA, has been selected as a recipient of the Daniel I. Linzer Award for Faculty Excellence in Service at Northwestern University. The award citation states, “Vicky Kalogera has performed extensive service to the University through various committees and interdisciplinary efforts, including the Provost Search Committee,

The Center for Synthetic Biology, in collaboration with the Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA), is pleased to welcome Dr. Kate Rubins, microbiologist and retired NASA astronaut, for a seminar exploring how insights from space-based genomics and systems biology can inform synthetic biology approaches to waste reclamation, environmental sensing, and biolog…

CIERA Director Vicky Kalogera was featured recently in a Giant Magellan Telescope Gala Video celebrating Dr. Walter E. Massey, whose decade guiding the Giant Magellan Telescope helped drive major milestones and global collaboration. The Founding Institutions (including Northwestern) continue to shape its vision and future. And now, Dr. Massey’s legacy reaches even farther with asteroid

On January 8, 2026, the American Astronomical Society (AAS) announced 23 new Fellows for 2026, including Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) faculty member Claude-André Faucher-Giguère. A major international organization of professional astronomers, astronomy educators, and amateur astronomers, AAS recognized Faucher-Giguère for significant contributions …

We are pleased to announce that Alexandra (Alex) Mannings will be joining CIERA as our new Board of Visitors Research Associate, beginning January 5. Alex recently earned her PhD in Astronomy and Astrophysics from the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), where she was advised by J. Xavier Prochaska and studied the local environments of

In an unprecedented celestial event, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (HST) captured the dramatic aftermath of colliding space rocks within a nearby planetary system. When astronomers initially spotted a bright object in the sky, they assumed it was a dust-covered exoplanet, reflecting starlight. But when the “exoplanet” disappeared and a new bright object appeared, the international

In a discovery that’s fit for a movie, Northwestern University astronomers have directly imaged a Tatooine-like exoplanet, orbiting two suns. While obtaining an image of a planet beyond our solar system is already rare, finding one that circles two suns is even rarer. But this new world is extra exceptional. It hugs its twin stars

A groundbreaking large-scale simulation of the universe, created through a collaboration between Northwestern’s Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) and Argonne National Laboratory, was named a finalist for the 2025 Gordon Bell Prize, the highest honor in high-performance computing. It was one of only six finalists selected globally from hundreds of submis…

CIERA’s Vicky Kalogera was the subject of a newly released conversation on the HerStories Podcast, hosted by Maria Doughty, President and CEO of The Chicago Network. From a small town in Greece, Vicky escaped poverty through education, becoming a leading member of the LIGO Collaboration that observed gravitational waves in 2015, and a leading theorist

The Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) at Northwestern University is delighted to welcome Daniel Linzer and Sunil Sanghvi as the newest members of its Board of Visitors. Both Linzer and Sanghvi bring exceptional leadership experience, deep scientific insight, and a long-standing commitment to advancing education and research. Their diverse expertise and