CIERA Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics

10/09/2026

Webb has measured the distance to the most distant fast radio burst seen to date, and CIERA’s Wen-fai Fong and her former student Alexa Gordon are co-authors on the paper published in Science.

The burst, first detected by the MeerKAT telescope, had no visible host galaxy in ground-based images. Northwestern’s special access to the MMT telescope in Arizona produced a deep image at its location that found no galaxy there, which helped pave the way for a successful JWST proposal. The team also helped interpret the Webb data.

“Normally when observing you’re excited to detect something, but in this case, not seeing anything in our MMT image was actually more exciting as that hinted that this FRB was much farther away. And indeed, it took the power of JWST to figure out just how distant this FRB truly was,” said Alexa Gordon, Brinson Prize Postdoctoral Fellow at Caltech.

Congratulations to the whole team!

First discovered in 2007, fast radio bursts are enigmatic, millisecond-long flashes of radio emission from the distant universe. Their origin remains

09/25/2026

Congratulations to CIERA's Adam Miller, named a 2026 NSF-Simonyi Scholar! This distinction is tied to the Simonyi Survey Telescope at Vera C. Rubin Observatory, recognizing early-career researchers whose work contributes to Rubin's Legacy Survey of Space and Time. Adam joins a cohort of just 24 scholars nationwide. Congratulations, Adam! https://bit.ly/3TPxVQY

09/24/2026

🎉 Happy National Postdoc Appreciation Week!

This week, we're celebrating the postdoctoral researchers at CIERA who bring curiosity, creativity, and dedication to their work every day.

Thank you for all that you do! Learn more about NPAW: https://bit.ly/4rxbtZo

09/16/2026

🌌 Postdoctoral positions open at CIERA! Northwestern University's Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics invites applications for two postdoctoral associate positions in time-domain astronomy and resolved stellar populations, starting fall 2027.

Two opportunities available:
- With Prof. Charles Kilpatrick, on resolved massive stars and supernova progenitors, using HST, Roman, and JWST.
- With Profs. Tarraneh Eftekhari and Wen-fai Fong, studying fast radio bursts and their host galaxies as part of the F4 collaboration.

Applications due December 18, 2026. Scan the QR code or visit the link to learn more and apply! https://bit.ly/3TbA0WW

09/11/2026

🔬 Meet the 2026 CIERA REU cohort!

Thirteen undergraduates spent nine weeks as full-time researchers at CIERA's Research Experience for Undergraduates program, now in its 12th year. They learned to code, run simulations, and operate Northwestern's Quest supercomputer, with trips to Fermilab, Yerkes Observatory, and a public presentation at The Adler Planetarium along the way.

"I want them to see that they can do this," said REU Program Director Cliff Johnson. "They can be a researcher. It's not some person in a white coat in an ivory tower. It's them."

Congratulations to this year's cohort on nine weeks of real astrophysics research! Read more about their projects: https://bit.ly/4gOhCN1

09/09/2026

🪐 Postdoctoral position open at CIERA! Northwestern University and the University of Chicago are now accepting applications for the joint Northwestern-UChicago Brinson Postdoctoral Fellowship in Astrophysics, a three-year appointment starting fall 2027.

This fellowship is only recruited once every three years, and comes with the chance to work across two dynamic research communities at CIERA and UChicago's Astronomy & Astrophysics department. Candidates in all areas of astronomy and astrophysics are encouraged to apply.

Applications due November 1, 2026. Scan the QR code or visit the link to learn more and apply! https://bit.ly/4xLzUo5

09/04/2026

🚀 NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launched into space this week, marking a major milestone for the astronomy community. Over the coming years, Roman will give astronomers an unprecedented view of the universe, enabling discoveries across an enormous range of topics, from how stars end their lives to how the first galaxies formed.

Several CIERA researchers are already leading Roman Cycle 1 programs, among the first to use the telescope's data. Research Faculty Dr. Charlie Kilpatrick is leading a project studying the progenitor stars of supernovae, while graduate student Aswin Suresh is leading an effort to identify over a million red supergiant stars across hundreds of nearby galaxies.

"I was incredibly excited to be at Roman's launch. This observatory will give us Hubble-quality infrared images across huge swaths of the sky, and I can't wait to see those first data arrive." - Dr. Charlie Kilpatrick

CIERA's own Piramon Kumnurdmanee was there too, on-site as NASA-accredited media representing Spaceth.co: "As a junior female astronomer, it was inspiring to experience the launch of the first NASA space telescope named after a woman, which will widen and deepen our understanding of the universe beyond what we could ever imagine."

📸 Photo by Piramon Kumnurdmanee

09/03/2026

🔭 Postdoctoral positions open at CIERA! The Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) at Northwestern University invites applications for two types of postdoctoral positions:

- CIERA Postdoctoral Fellowships - independent, prestigious fellowships open to researchers across astronomy and astrophysics. https://bit.ly/4iFim8s

- Postdoctoral Associate Positions - in theoretical astronomy and astrophysics, starting fall 2027. https://bit.ly/4xaBoqS

Scan the QR codes below or visit the links to learn more and apply!

08/28/2026

Looking for the perfect way to spend a summer evening? Join us tonight at Dearborn Observatory for CIERA Astronomer Evening! Hear a talk by an astronomer, ask questions, and look through the historic telescope.