The Life of Margaret Hamilton

Margaret Hamilton (née Heafield) grew up surrounded by music, family, and a strong focus on education. She was born in Indiana, but she spent her childhood moving around the Midwest before spending her high school years in the Upper Peninsula. Hamilton enjoyed learning—her mother was a teacher and her father a philosopher. There was no question she would go to college; it was simply assumed. 

She graduated from Hancock High School in Michigan in 1954 and decided to attend the University of Michigan. She had been offered a scholarship to an all-girls college as well, but Hamilton felt she needed the real world experience of studying in a co-ed institution. As a child, she played baseball on an all-boys team, and in high school, her least favorite subject was home economics, simply because all the girls were required to take it. Hamilton was used to pushing back against gender norms at the time. She studied mathematics at the university and did well, but she decided to transfer to Earlham College, a small college in Indiana intertwined with her family history. She had relatives who had attended dating back to the 1890s. 

At Earlham, Hamilton studied under math professor Florence Long. Hamilton admired her professor's ability to teach and enjoyed the camaraderie she built by inviting her classes to her home for sandwiches, although she noted she was the only girl in the class. Hamilton graduated with degrees in mathematics and philosophy, a nod to her father's profession, and taught math to high school students in Indiana for one year while she waited for her husband (James Cox Hamilton) to finish his degree. They both wanted to study advanced degrees but knew one would have to work while the other studied. James was admitted to Harvard Law School, so they moved to Boston, and Margaret was hired at MIT to work alongside Professor Edward N. Lorenz. Hamilton encountered computers for the first time here, although she remembered hearing about them at a previous job, as well as the rumor that computers would replace everyone and take all the jobs away.

Hamilton worked with several large computers at MIT focused on meteorological models, Professor Lorenz's area of research. After several years, she was hired as a computer programmer and worked with the SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment) system to detect and track potentially harmful Soviet bombers. During this time, her daughter was young, and she often brought her to the lab at night. 

Margaret Hamilton, in 1969, next to "the stack" of operating manuals she wrote during the Apollo missions at NASA. 
Photo: NASA

During this time, Hamilton heard about the Apollo program at NASA and knew she wanted the chance to work for the program that would send men to the Moon. This meant delaying grad school again, but she thought the chance to work on Apollo was worth it. Hamilton was hired to help build the software for the onboard computers for the Apollo missions. As she worked, she realized she had to also account for how different systems interfaced. Hamilton was eventually responsible for the systems softward and the command module software. She invented the idea of an offline version of a software update during this time after once updating the main computer with a version that didn't work, affecting every other computer in the department. As the Apollo missions moved into manned missions, Hamilton also took on responsibility for the onboard flight software. 

In her oral history interview with the Computer History Museum, Hamilton noted the greatest challenge of this program:

"But there was always one thing that stood out in my mind being in the onboard flight software was that it was “man rated,” meaning if it didn’t work a person’s life was at stake if not over. That was always uppermost in my mind and probably many others as well. It had to be man rated and it had to work the first time. You couldn’t fly the astronauts up there-- because it was man-machine, interfacing with the astronauts. You couldn’t fly them up there to test the system, so you had to do it before the fact, meaning you had to simulate it either in the hardware or the software simulation and hope that your simulations covered everything."

Hamilton dealt in "what ifs" with the Apollo program, a trait ingrained in her by philosophy sessions with her father. It was the ability to think through the "what if" scenarios that made her such a successful programmer. She also coined the term "software engineering" to distinguish what her team was doing from the hardware engineers. Hamilton's programming also famously saved the Apollo 11 astronauts when the system became overloaded. By anticipating this possibility, she had instructed the programming to drop low-priority tasks so it could continue to steer the spacecraft to the Moon. 

After Hamilton's work with the Apollo Missions, she went on to create two companies, Higher Order Software in 1976, and Hamilton Technologies in 1986. During this time, she developed the Universal Systems Language (USL) and served as CEO. She was awarded NASA's Exceptional Space Act Award in 2003 and a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016. In 2022, she was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame, and in 2025, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum recognized Hamilton with the Michael Collins Trophy for lifetime achievement.

Margaret Hamilton died September 30, 2026, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her lifetime of dedication to the field of software engineering, and her work at NASA and beyond, will never be forgotten. 

Watch Margaret Hamilton's oral history interview with the Computer History Museum on YouTube. 

Crosspost: The Bra-and-Girdle Maker That Fashioned the Impossible for NASA

Today's crosspost is by Nicholas de Monchaux, author of "Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo" and originally posted to the MIT Press Reader on April 9. 

The Bra-and-Girdle Maker That Fashioned the Impossible for NASA

By Nicholas de Monchaux

Apollo 8 crew is photographed posing on a Kennedy Space Center (KSC) simulator in their space suits. From left to right are: James A. Lovell Jr., William A. Anders, and Frank Borman.
Image Credit: NASA

In 1966, when seamstresses at the International Latex Corporation arrived at its new Apollo Suit shopfloor in Frederica, Delaware, they were essentially “taught to sew again from scratch.” And for good reason: Compared to the company’s bras and girdles, the craftsmanship needed to fashion a spacesuit was, in every sense, out of this world.

At the same time that ILC’s seamstresses were being asked to meet unprecedented precision standards, they were denied traditional tools, such as fastening pins used to maintain sewing accuracy. To a garment whose reliability depended on an impermeable rubber bladder, mechanical aids like pins were an inherently risky proposition.

The most valued seamstresses were those like Roberta Pilkenton, who could sew together the outermost layer of the Apollo suit, the Thermal Micrometeoroid Garment (TMG). Pilkenton crafted the TMG’s 17 concentric layers, with hundreds of yards of seams, without a single tool except her own guiding fingers.

Read more at

https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-bra-and-girdle-maker-that-fashioned-the-impossible-for-nasa/

Read what Lara Kearney has to say about NASA's Artemis spacesuit, built by Axiom Space, at

https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/nasa-moon-mission-spacesuit-nears-milestone/

Support Science Funding (Again): A Call to Action

This week, as Artemis II circled the Moon and took humans farther from Earth than ever before, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released its 2027 budget. That budget looks eerily similar to the budget released in 2025 that sought to gut support for NASA as well as funding for other agencies involved in science and research. This proposed budget, if passed, would cut $5.6 billion from NASA science, despite overwhelming support for NASA from Congress.

In the Planetary Society's article "What is the skinny budget, and what does it mean for NASA?" Ari Koeppel wonders if the proposal may be a strategic move "to normalize deep reductions to government programs."

Photo: The Planetary Society

Jared Isaacman, who was sworn in as NASA administrator on December 18, 2025, released a letter to NASA employees this week in response to the budget, essentially supporting the cuts by emphasizing his commitment to efficiency and that the budget is sufficient. Despite Isaacman's statement, many in the greater science community are alarmed by this nearly identical attempt to once again shrink the resources allocated to science.

In AAS's statement on the proposed budget this week, Roohi Dalal writes, "Congress holds the 'power of the purse' and will ultimately make the decision about how much federal funding is appropriated to these and other agencies. We urge you to take action next week and, thereafter, to remind Congress of the importance of federal funding for the sciences."

The AAS is holding a Week of Action beginning Monday, April 13. Take action each day to show Congress you support a fully funded science budget and not the "skinny" budget released by the OMB. Find all the steps on the AAS website. Anyone who completes three steps will be recognized as an advocacy hero at the next AAS meeting.

The Planetary Society had already marked April 19 and 20 as their annual Day of Action, where members advocate for science face-to-face with members of Congress in Washington, D.C. That day will take on extra meaning. 

This week, take some time to participate in AAS's Week of Action and show Congress how much Americans support funding NASA and science in general. 

 

Earth sets at 6:41 p.m. EDT, April 6, 2026, over the Moon’s curved limb in this photo captured by the Artemis II crew during their journey around the far side of the Moon. Photo: NASA

Christina Koch's Path to the Moon

Yesterday, history was made. For the first time since 1972, a rocket launched to the Moon—the first time for many of us to witness such an event. Christina Koch (pronounced cook), the only woman in the four-person crew, is also making history as the first woman to travel so far into space. 

Image Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

Koch was born in 1979, seven years after Apollo 17, the last mission to the Moon. She doesn't remember a time when she didn't want to be an astronaut. "I loved things that made me feel small. I loved looking at the night sky. I love the ocean—I grew up in coastal North Carolina. And I just love contemplating the vastness of the universe and our place in it," Koch said in an interview with Brilliant Star magazine.

She enjoyed science and math and excelled at those subjects, helped along her path by attending North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. Koch studied electrical engineering and physics at North Carolina State University, earning both a Bachelor of Science and a Master's degree in electrical engineering. She set her sights on NASA early by graduating from the NASA Academy Program at Goddard Space Flight Center in 2001.

Before her ventures into space, Koch focused on extreme environments on Earth. She was a research associate in the United States Antarctic Program, which took her to both the North and South Poles. She did a winter-over season at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, where she learned how to adapt to the challenges of living far from family in a harsh climate with the same people—skills that readily translate to space travel.

Koch also used her engineering skills in the Space Department of the Applied Physics Lab at John Hopkins University, where she built instruments to measure radiation particles on NASA missions. She has also worked as a field engineer and a station chief for NOAA. 

Koch's depth of experience, along with her childhood dream, eventually led her to apply to NASA's astronaut program. She was named as one of eight members of NASA's 21st astronaut class in 2013 and completed her training in 2015. Four years later, she headed to the International Space Station, where she made history twice. First, she participated in the first all-female spacewalk on October 18, 2019. When her mission was extended until February 2020, she took the record from Peggy Whitson for the longest single continuous stay in space for a woman at 328 days.

Koch was named as part of Artemis II's crew in 2023 in a history-making move. Yesterday, April 1, 2026, she launched into space with fellow NASA astronauts Mission Commander Reid Wiseman and Pilot Victor Glover and Mission Specialist 2 and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen. While the other three astronauts come from military backgrounds, Koch joins the crew as an expert electrical engineer and Mission Specialist 1. Her role includes overseeing hatch systems and operations on Orion. Mission specialists are trained in all roles in the event of an emergency. 

Koch and the Artemis II crew will reach lunar orbit April 6, fly around the Moon, and return to Earth April 10. When she does, Koch will emerge from the Orion capsule as the first woman, but surely not the last, to travel beyond low Earth orbit as humanity bids to go to the Moon once again.

Image Credit: Mark Sowa - NASA - JSC

Budget cuts and canceled grants continue to threaten science and research.

The budget for the fiscal year hasn’t been set, but uncertainty continues to swirl as the proposed budget cuts will deeply affect NASA, the NSF, and other agencies that lead and support physics and astronomy. Canceled grants and research have already disparately affected scientists from underrepresented groups. The NSF had purposefully approved projects designed to broaden participation by scientists in underrepresented groups, including women, Black scientists, and those with disabilities. 

The smallest proposed NASA budget since 1961.
Source: The Planetary Society

According to an article from science.org, “More than half of the 1500 research grants that the National Science Foundation (NSF) has terminated in the past month under orders from President Donald Trump’s administration aimed to bring groups historically underrepresented in science into the mainstream. Ending those grants reversed decades of efforts focused on what the agency calls the “missing millions”: women, racial and ethnic minorities, veterans, and low-income and rural students.”

These grants have been cut for their association with DEI, which the current administration has labelled as exclusionary. In Jeffrey Mervis’s article, several debated that definition. 

“I get that Trump doesn’t like DEI, but we don’t exclude anybody,” says Tammie Visintainer, a science educator at San Jose State University (SJSU) who has lost NSF funding for two projects. One helps local secondary school teachers prepare units and guide student research on the health and environmental effects of urban heat islands, and the second aims to improve introductory undergraduate science courses at SJSU. Visintainer says the work benefits not just minority students at inner-city schools, but also suburban kids from wealthy families who have been turned off by boring lectures and prepackaged lab experiments that don’t reflect real scientific inquiry.

“Remember, white men are still a majority in science,” Handelsman says. “So when we improve how we teach science, the white male students learn more, too.

Read the full article “NSF grant cuts fall heaviest on scientists from underrepresented groups” at science.org. 

The NSF isn’t the only one dealing with this issue. Science News interviewed Harlan Krumholz, a cardiovascular medicine specialist at Yale School of Medicine, about his work to track which grants were terminated and their impact. 

“…when you look across institutes, the effects weren’t felt uniformly. We found that the National Institutes on Minority Health and Health Disparities … was hit the hardest. About 30 percent of their funding was cut. And that’s tenfold higher than the average cut. That was really striking to us.

Finally, we wanted to characterize not only which grants were cut, but also the career stage [of recipients]. That really kind of caught us off guard. One in 5, or about 20 percent of grants that were terminated, were classified as early career grants. These grants are really critical for early career researchers and the next generation of researchers to become independent investigators.”

Policy and equity researcher Michael Liu of Harvard University also assisted in the research, and both Liu and Krumholz are concerned for the future of science as the current atmosphere of uncertainly lowers morale and makes research less attractive to future scientists.

Read $1.8 billion in NIH grant cuts hit minority health research the hardest at sciencenews.org.

Meanwhile, the unpredictability continues with the current U.S. budget proposal set to tear into NASA’s and the NSF’s budgets. Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at the Planetary Society, has done exceptional work to bring to light how devastating these cuts will be. In an article for Scientific American, Dreier says, “This is a profound, generational threat to scientific leadership in the United States.” 

“If implemented, it would fundamentally undermine and potentially devastate the most unique capabilities that the U.S. has built up over a half-century.”

Source: The Planetary Society

The Planetary Society highlights the fact that the proposed budget is the smallest for NASA since 1961. Each of NASA’s four major divisions will be slashed 30 to 65% if passed. It would cancel 19 active missions, including Chandra, Juno, and New Horizons, and invalidate years of research and design, and over $12 billion invested in space science. 

The Planetary Society is running a petition to save NASA science. Visit the action center at planetary.org to sign it. You can also call your representatives and encourage them to support funding for NASA. The Planetary Society offers a script for the calls as well as information on how to prepare, FAQs, and the latest talking points. The calls only take one to two minutes. 

Let’s continue to advocate for science for everyone, by everyone. 

Spotlight on Dr. Beth Brown

As we hit the end of February, let’s revisit one of astronomy’s brightest stars who left us too early. 

Beth Brown was born February 4, 1969. She grew up in Roanoke, Virginia watching reruns of Star Trek and was enthralled with Star Wars, and both fueled her love for the stars. In high school she visited an observatory, where she viewed the Ring Nebula through a telescope. That school trip impacted her deeply, and after graduation, Brown decided to pursue astronomy.

She chose Howard University as an astrophysics major, dreaming of one day becoming an astronaut. While an undergrad, she learned her dislike of tight spaces (like those in a space shuttle) and that being near-sighted might not be the best attributes for an astronaut. Brown still pursued astrophysics, though, and graduated summa cum laude in 1991. While still an undergrad, she interned twice for NASA at Goddard Space Flight Center.

Brown pursued her graduate degrees at the University of Michigan, earning both her Masters and her doctoral degrees there. She became the first Black woman to earn a PhD in astronomy from the university. While studying astronomy, Brown also participated in science communication, teaching students and the general public about astronomy through the local planetarium and developing a short course at the university for non-astronomy majors to learn about the subject.

Photo: NASA

After obtaining her PhD, Dr. Brown returned to NASA, first as a post-doctoral research associate focused on elliptical galaxies, using both the ROSAT X-ray satellite and Chandra X-ray observatory to gather data. In her career at NASA, Dr. Brown worked at Goddard Space Flight Center and the X-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory. She also taught classes at Howard University on physics and astronomy as part of a NASA administrator fellowship.

Dr. Brown had just accepted a new position at GSFC as the Assistant Director for Science Communications and Higher Education, a job that combined her love for teaching and communicating about astronomy. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the chance to fulfill that role. Dr. Brown suffered a pulmonary embolism in October of 2008 which led to her unexpected death at the age of 39.

The Dr. Beth A. Brown Science Foundation was founded to remember and honor Dr. Brown by awarding scholarships to students studying physics or astronomy. The foundation awards scholarships to graduating high school seniors who are attending a university and majoring in either subject, as well as current students at Howard University and the University of Michigan.

The American Astronomical Society remembers Dr. Brown through the Beth Brown Memorial Award. In conjunction with the National Society of Black Physicists, the awards are given to an undergraduate and a graduate student who presents their research to the NSBP in poster format, and one student who presents in an oral format. Those selected receive a year of membership in AAS and registration to an AAS event with reimbursement for expenses. Members of the Committee on the Status of Minorities in Astronomy (CSMA) are often involved in the selection process through the NSBP. 

Though Dr. Brown’s time in astronomy was cut short, she made deep and lasting impacts everywhere she went. Astro 127, or Naked Eye Astronomy, is still taught at the University of Michigan, allowing students to experience the joy of learning about the most common astronomical objects that can be observed with the naked eye.

Photo: NASA

Through her work, teaching, and outreach, she inspired young people to look to the stars, just as she did that first time she peered through a telescope and felt the stars calling her.

AASWomen Newsletter for September 27, 2024

AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy
Issue of September 27, 2024
eds: Jeremy Bailin, Nicolle Zellner, Sethanne Howard, and Hannah Jang-Condell

[We hope you all are taking care of yourselves and each other. --eds.]

From Item #1

This week's issues:
1. Workshopping Success Beyond Research  
2. Request for Comments: F.18 MOSAICS DRAFT Text  
3. Gender-plus analysis of Canadian science and engineering grants     
4. Job Opportunities 
5. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter
6. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter
7. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

An online version of this newsletter will be available at http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/ at 3:00 PM ET every Friday.

AASWomen Newsletter for July 19, 2024

AAS Committee on the Status of Women

Issue of July 19, 2024

eds: Jeremy Bailin, Nicolle Zellner, Sethanne Howard, and Hannah Jang-Condell

[We hope you all are taking care of yourselves and each other. --eds.]

This week's issues:

Dorothy Vaughan, a "hidden figure"
Credit: NASA

1. Celebrating Apollo-era Women    

2. AAS seeking plenary speakers for AAS 245

3. Heising-Simons Foundation’s Science Program Soliciting Proposals 

4. Black Space Week 2024 Recordings Available 

5. This Month in Astronomical History: July 2024   

6. Sloan Research Fellowships 

7. Mary-Lou Pardue, MIT professor whose anti-bias efforts lifted women in science, dies at 90

8. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

9. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

10. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

An online version of this newsletter will be available at http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/ at 3:00 PM ET every Friday.

Celebrating Apollo-era Women

NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston will rename “Building 12,” on Friday, July 19, the eve of the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, in honor of "hidden figure" computer Dorothy Vaughan, who is acknowledged as NASA’s first African-American manager. Other women of Apollo will also be recognized with activities marking their achievements.

A portrait of Dorothy Vaughan.
Credit: NASA

At 9 a.m. CDT, NASA Johnson Director Vanessa Wyche will begin with a discussion about the importance of Vaughan and the women of Apollo’s contributions to the agency’s lunar landing program and their significance to today’s Artemis campaign. Other highlights include a “Women in Human Spaceflight” panel discussion moderated by Debbie Korth, the agency’s Orion Program deputy manager. 

Read more at

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-johnson-to-dedicate-building-to-dorothy-vaughan-women-of-apollo/

Further reading:

• Panel Participants (incl. bios and pictures)
• Other Women of Apollo
• First Lady Astronaut Trainees 

Women at NASA Support Human Spaceflight

By Nicolle Zellner

On April 12, the United Nations celebrated the International Day of Human Spaceflight in honor of Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet citizen. who conducted the first human space flight. This historic event opened the way for space exploration for the benefit of all humanity.

NASA has been the leader of human spaceflight in the United States, and women at all of the NASA centers and facilities have worked - for decades - to support those efforts. Here are just a few of them.

Teresa Kinney, NASA's first female chief engineer at the agency's Kennedy Space Center (KSC), is one of the managers working to put the Gateway lunar space station together in orbit around the Moon later in the 2020s. She says, ""If everybody thinks alike, you're not thinking about the problem correctly."

Read more at

https://www.space.com/nasa-1st-female-chief-engineer-gateway-moon

Kari Alvarado, is the lead management analyst and Dryden Aeronautical Test Range (DATR) asset manager at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, CA. Her advice? Never compare yourself to others. Only compare yourself to you and your own potential."

Read more at

https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/armstrong/womens-history-month-meet-kari-alvarado/

Gwendolyn Wheatle currently serves as the Administrative Assistant for the Office of STEM Engagement at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA. What started as a temporary, three-week clerical position supporting the Office of the Chief Scientist has blossomed into a 38-year career at NASA. She reminds us that you don’t have to have a degree in engineering or science to hold a position at NASA - no matter your degree, background, or experience, there is a place for you.

Read more at

https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/langley/langley-celebrates-womens-history-month-gwendolyn-wheatle/

Learn more! Women are making history at NASA every day, as the agency continues to drive innovation and push the envelope. Learn more at https://www.nasa.gov/women-at-nasa/.

AASWomen Newsletter for April 5, 2024

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of April 5, 2024
eds: Jeremy Bailin, Nicolle Zellner, Sethanne Howard, and Hannah Jang-Condell

[We hope you all are taking care of yourselves and each other. --eds.]

This week's issues:
1. Sexism in academia wastes public funding and is bad for science 
2. Women Eclipse Chasers
3. Meet 5 women pushing the boundaries through NOAA’s work in space 4. Meet the Two Women Leading Space Station Science 
5. We asked over 50 women space leaders for words of inspiration. Here's what they told us 
6. The State of Girls in STEM: A Conversation to Plan Action
7. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter
8. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter
9. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

An online version of this newsletter will be available at http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/ at 3:00 PM ET every Friday.

AASWomen Newsletter for December 8, 2023

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of December 8, 2023
eds: Jeremy Bailin, Nicolle Zellner, Sethanne Howard, and Hannah Jang-Condell

[We hope you all are taking care of yourselves and each other. --eds.]

Evelyn Fox Keller
(Image: Rick Friedman/Corbis, via Getty Images)

This week's issues:

1. Repost: Don’t Masculinize the Letter of Recommendation: Towards a Truly Gender-Brave Science Community
2. Astronomy Award Winners Announced
3. Reimagining the Astronomy PhD for the 21st Century
4. Mary Cleave, ‘trailblazing’ astronaut, dies at 76
5. Evelyn Fox Keller (1936–2023), philosopher who questioned gender roles in science
6. "For Women in Science" celebrates the first hundred Mexican scientists supported by the L'Oréal-UNESCO national programme
7. STEM gender gap shows no signs of closing with Gen Z
8. Brite 2024 Application Now Open
9. Job Opportunities
10. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter
11. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter
12. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter 

An online version of this newsletter will be available at http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/ at 3:00 PM ET every Friday.

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AASWomen Newsletter for September 29, 2023

AAS Committee on the Status of Women           
Issue of September 29, 2023
eds: Jeremy Bailin, Nicolle Zellner, Sethanne Howard, and Hannah Jang-Condell

[We hope you all are taking care of yourselves and each other. --eds.]

This week's issues:

1. NASA's Hubble Fellowship Program
2. NSF supports the Council of Graduate Schools in efforts to broaden participation in the nation’s technology workforce
3. Astronomers push back on new IAU harassment polic
4. Natural Inspiration   
5. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter
6. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter
7. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

An online version of this newsletter will be available at http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/ at 3:00 PM ET every Friday.

NASA's Hubble Fellowship Program

By Antonino Cucchiara (NASA HQ) and Patricia Knezek (NASA HQ)

Summary: The NASA Hubble Fellowship Program (NHFP) seeks input from the astronomical community and, in particular, from early career colleagues, in response to the 2021 NHFP program review and recommendations. This feedback form will be available until October 21st, 2023.

Background: The NASA Hubble Fellowship Program, the umbrella program that currently includes the Hubble, Sagan, and Einstein Fellowships, has been critical in providing talented and scientifically productive early career researchers the necessary tools to pursue groundbreaking discoveries while becoming leaders in the field of astronomy. The NHFP was created in 2018, but when considering its impact in combination with fellowships (e.g. Chandra, Spitzer) previously funded by NASA's Astrophysics Division, the role the fellowships have played cannot be understated: many fellows reached leadership positions in academia, federal agencies, and research centers and were awarded research grants, and prizes earlier than many of their peers.

In 2021, NASA Headquarters (HQ) initiated the first-ever review of the NHFP with the main objectives of identifying areas of improvement. While the charge of the review panel was to focus on two major areas (the NHFP success under its current structure and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion of the program), the report included 32 recommendations that span a wide range of topics (e.g., the Mission of the NHFP, the management of the program, the review and application processes, Diversity and Accessibility, and the support of the fellows).

The report was published in December 2021 and showed the impact and aura of prestige that surrounds the program, its participants, and the key role within the astronomical community in providing resources to emerging early career researchers.

Nevertheless, under the broader lenses of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) 2020-2024 Science Plan and the adoption of Inclusion as a NASA core value (in addition to the values of Excellence, Integrity, Teamwork, and Safety), the NHFP report highlights the need for change in several aspects of the NHFP, some of which were already underway at the time of its publication.

Actions: NASA HQ created a task force, which included the NHFP program leads and management personnel at NASA, as well as personnel at Goddard Space Flight Center, the Space Telescope Science Institute, the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, and the Center for Astrophysics, to address the recommendations. Over the first year, the task force crafted a response to the report and identified recommendations that were already implemented or would be implemented by the 2023 Fellows cycle (e.g., providing funding for non-research career development activities, and extending the 4-year post-PhD eligibility criteria). This response can be found here.

Also, in the summer of 2022 a Community Feedback form was delivered to the astronomical community to gauge which of the 32 recommendations should be prioritized, while considering their impact on the program and the fellows’ experiences. The responses on the aforementioned form came from community members who identify along multiple diversity axes, from early career to more senior colleagues and also included members from institutions and private sectors. While all recommendations were included in the feedback request, key takeaways from the response was that the community was split in its consideration of the importance of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA, as defined in the report and in NASA SMD Strategic Plan) and the role this should play in the various aspects of the program (e.g., from the definition of a program Mission statement, to selection criteria, to the need for funding fellows’ career development initiatives). Many of the 32 recommendations, though, require financial commitments that will naturally delay their implementation, as well as require fundamental changes in financing the program’s day-to-day operations (e.g., policies, reviews, etc.). 

In summer 2023, the task force developed a more focused feedback form, whose aim is to narrow down some of the key aspects of the program review (and relevant recommendations) to gauge community inputs regarding possible changes to the NHFP that could support future needs of the fellows. The task force will brief the community on the results and outcomes of the current feedback form at a Special Session on the NHFP at the 243th AAS in New Orleans, in January 2024.

2022 NHFP Symposium