On May 7, the Department of Physics and Astronomy announced that graduate student Ilia Kiato has been awarded a Dr. John N. Nicholson Fellowship for the 2025–2026 academic year. This highly competitive fellowship honors outstanding Northwestern University PhD students in the sciences, engineering, and management by providing full tuition and a nine-month stipend, equivalent to a University Fellowship.
Named for Dr. John N. Nicholson—a distinguished physician and leader in the Greek-American community who practiced medicine in the Chicago area for over 50 years—the fellowship reflects a deep commitment to supporting exceptional scholars whose work demonstrates both intellectual rigor and dedication. Dr. Nicholson established this endowment to empower academically superior and highly motivated graduate students across Northwestern.
“It is an honor to receive the Dr. John N. Nicholson Fellowship and be part of a legacy that values both academic excellence and cultural heritage,” says Ilia. “Since moving from Greece to pursue astrophysics in the U.S., I’ve often felt a quiet tension between following that dream and staying connected to where I come from. This award brings those two parts of myself together and will allow me to fully dedicate myself to the astrophysics research that brought me here. For that, I’m deeply grateful.”
Ilia is a PhD candidate in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences and a member of the Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA), where she is advised by CIERA Director Vicky Kalogera. Her research focuses on the evolution of binary star systems and the formation of compact objects such as black holes. By integrating binary evolution modeling with observational data from X-ray binaries in the Milky Way, Kiato aims to deepen our understanding of how black holes form and evolve—work that sits at the forefront of stellar astrophysics.