Northwestern University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics member Adam Miller, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, has been named a 2026 NSF-Simonyi Scholar.
The distinction is tied to the Simonyi Survey Telescope at the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, made possible by a gift from philanthropist Charles Simonyi that was matched by the National Science Foundation. The NSF-Simonyi Scholars program supports early-career researchers whose work contributes to Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), which began its ten-year survey this past June. Miller joins a cohort of just 24 scholars nationwide.
Miller, who also directs the LSST-Discovery Alliance Data Science Fellowship Program, works at the intersection of time-domain astrophysics and data science. His research uses optical time-domain surveys to study stellar evolution, from accretion outbursts in young stars to the explosive deaths of massive stars. The award recognizes his project, StarEmbed: Building a Foundational Data Infrastructure for Model Evaluation and Development in Time-Domain Astrophysics, for its contributions to Rubin’s LSST.
Congratulations, Adam!