Dr. Kate Whitaker Offered NASA Hubble PostDoc Fellowship

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

We are very pleased and excited to announce that Dr. Kate Whitaker has been offered the prestigious NASA’s Hubble Postdoctoral Fellowship, the world’s top fellowship program in astronomy according to many, which she will carry out at the Department of Astronomy here at UMass Amherst starting this coming summer. A UMass alumna, Kate received her Bachelors of Science in Physics and Astronomy in 2005. She graduated summa cum laude with one of the first cohorts through the Commonwealth College. During her time at UMass, she was also awarded the Hasbrouck Scholarship, William F. Field Alumni Scholarship, Outstanding Undergraduate Award in the Astronomy Department, and the Mary Dailey Irvine Prize. Following her successful start at UMass, Kate went on to receive her PhD in 2012 through the Department of Astronomy at Yale University. Kate is currently a James Webb Space Telescope Postdoctoral Program Fellow at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. She is excited to return to UMass Amherst to pursue her research interests in understanding the growth of galaxies across cosmic time.