The Hubble Fellowship Program provides an opportunity for highly qualified recent postdoctoral scientists to conduct independent research that is broadly related to the NASA Cosmic Origins scientific goals as addressed by any of the missions in that program: the Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), the Herschel Space Observatory, and the James Webb Space Telescope.
The research will be carried out at United States Host Institutions chosen by each Fellow.
The Fellowship provides support for up to three years at an annual stipend of approximately $67,000 plus benefits, and an additional allowance of $16,000 per year for travel and other research costs. Contingent upon National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) funding, up to 17 new Hubble Fellowships will be awarded for 2015.
The Hubble Fellowship Program is administered for NASA by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., working in cooperation with astronomical institutions throughout the United States. Awards will be made to support each Hubble Fellow through a designated Host Institution.
An application for the Fellowship consists of a research proposal and supporting documentation.
Applicants must have received their Ph.D. or equivalent degree on or after January 1, 2012. The deadline for receipt of applications is Thursday, November 6, 2014 and for reference letters is Thursday, November 13, 2014. Award offers will be made by February 1, 2015.
Fellowship Policies
Eligibility
Applicants must have received a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral-level research degree in astronomy, physics, or a related discipline on or after January 1, 2012. Graduate-student awardees who have not yet received their doctoral degree at the time of application must present evidence of having completed all requirements for the degree before commencing their Fellowships.
Hubble Fellowships are open to citizens of the United States and to English-speaking citizens of other countries. Qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, creed, color, age, gender, or national origin. Women and members of minority groups are strongly encouraged to apply.
Host Institution
Contingent upon availability of funding from NASA, Hubble Fellowships are awarded through grants to Host Institutions. Applicants may select any eligible United States institution for carrying out their research as long as the choice is suitably justified in their proposals. For the present purposes, "institution" means a separate administrative entity which offers its scientific staff a career advancement process that can lead to long-term/permanent contracts or to tenure. Justification is particularly important in cases where the selected institution is the same one where the applicant earned his/her degree, or is the current home institution of the applicant.
A faculty member or other eligible member of the scientific staff of the Host Institution will serve as the Faculty Contact for scientific purposes and will be the Principal Investigator of the Fellow's grant for administrative purposes.
In order to avoid an excessive concentration of Fellows at any one institution, only one new Fellow per year will generally be approved for any single institution. Two new Fellows may be approved at a given institution if that institution agrees to be ineligible for a new (or transferring) Fellow in the following year. Under highly exceptional circumstances, the institution’s year of ineligibility may be deferred by one year. For this reason, the following institutions are not eligible to accept a Hubble Fellow in 2015:
- Harvard University
- Johns Hopkins University
- University of California, Santa Cruz
Applicants are asked to propose three prospective Host Institutions, in order of preference. As part of the application procedure (described in detail below), an endorsement letter from the first-choice Host Institution is required. No prior endorsement from the two alternative institutions is required.
The purpose of designating second-and third-choice institutions in the application is to provide the program with flexibility should there be an oversubscription of awardees at any single institution. Barring this circumstance, it is expected that awardees will utilize their Fellowships at their first-choice institutions.
It is essential that candidates for Hubble Fellowships give serious consideration to their designations of first, second, and third-choice Host Institutions before their applications are submitted. These initial designations play an important role in how Hubble Fellows are matched with Host Institutions. In some cases, it may be possible for a person awarded a Hubble Fellowship to change his or her choice of Host Institution at the time of recruitment. This possibility depends, however, on unpredictable factors, especially the choices of Host Institutions of other Fellowship awardees. Thus, candidates cannot expect to have the option of changing their preferences for Host Institutions after they submit their applications.
In general, Fellows will work full-time on the research programs proposed in their applications and will be in residence at the proposed Host Institution during the entire period of the Fellowship. However, should a Fellow have a compelling need to transfer to an institution other than the original Host Institution, and can present suitable justification, the STScI Director may approve the request to transfer the Fellowship. Transfers are subject to the policies limiting the number of new Fellows per institution as outlined above.
Stipend
The initial annual stipend for a Hubble Fellow will be approximately $67,000, subject to annual review and adjustment. In addition, the Hubble Fellow can receive health insurance, relocation costs, and support for travel, computing services, publications, and other direct research costs. No additional stipend, salary, or other remuneration may be accepted from any other appointment (such as teaching), fellowship, or similar grant during the period of the Fellowship. Additional honorary named appointments intended to be linked with the title of "Hubble Fellow" are similarly not allowed.
Duration of Fellowship
Contingent upon the availability of funding from NASA, Hubble Fellowships are awarded through grants to Host Institutions for up to a three-year period. Funding will be provided initially for the first year of the Fellowship. Renewals for the second and third years will depend on annual performance reviews.
Status
These Fellowships are analogous to prize fellowships or similar temporary programs at the postdoctoral level at universities. They are not intended to be, nor to compete with, permanent professional career positions.
