Beyond Funding: How the 51 Pegasi b Fellowship Provides Transformational Support to Researchers in Planetary Astronomy

"By far, [the 51 Pegasi b Fellowship is] the best thing that’s ever happened to me professionally...It launched my career."

Peter Gao, 51 Pegasi b fellowship alumnus

Astronomer Peter Gao specializes in the atmospheres of planets beyond our solar system. Much of his work is theoretical; he hypothesizes about planets that scientists know exist. Like the HR 8799 planets, where clouds are believed to be made of rocks. His career—and his science—soared to new highs in 2017 when he joined the inaugural 51 Pegasi b Fellowship class.

The fellowship honors early-career researchers in planetary astronomy by funding them to do independent research at a host institution. With this level of support and flexibility, Gao decided it was the perfect time to start a family.

“This fellowship didn’t just give me the opportunity of a career but also gave me the opportunity of a family,” said Gao, who is now a staff scientist at Carnegie Science’s Earth and Planets Laboratory. “Nothing eclipses that.”

Any postdoctoral researcher knows how crucial those first few years are after their Ph.D. A baby could derail a person’s career, but Gao wasn’t worried. This was the perfect time. The 51 Pegasi b Fellowship offered the flexibility he needed. He could take paid time off. His work on planetary atmospheres would continue without institutional pressures. After all, the program offers fellows the independence to pursue the science they want on the schedule they want. So that’s what he did. And he doesn’t regret it for a second. The program is highly collaborative and regularly brings fellows and alumni together to spur the kind of innovation that is only possible when scientists are given the freedom to be creative.

"Our goal is to support our fellows more holistically: as people, as scientists, and as members of a vibrant community advancing scientific progress in planetary astronomy"

Emily Schaller, Science Program Officer, Heising-Simons Foundation

Since 2017, the program has supported 66 fellows and expanded to 28 host institutions across the U.S. The fellowship provides scientists with a three-year grant of up to $450,000 to cover their salary and benefits, as well as highly flexible research-related discretionary spending. Fellows are encouraged to apply to extend their fellowship for a fourth year. If they receive a permanent staff role during the program, they can apply for a grant equivalent to one year of funds to help them in their new position. Despite the years that have passed since Gao was a fellow, one element about 51 Pegasi b remains the same: its commitment to the fellows and their futures.

“By far, it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me professionally,” Gao said. “It launched my career.”

Video: 51 Pegasi b Fellowship in Planetary Astronomy

Where collaboration and mentorship come together

Over the three years of his fellowship, Gao got to direct his own work and explore new research areas. He published several papers, attended science conferences, and even traveled to Hawai’i to visit the Mauna Kea Observatories to “play” with some telescopes—expensive endeavors that the fellowship’s financial support made easier. Plus, at any conferences where there’s another fellow (and there almost always is), the Heising-Simons Foundation will cover the costs of a meal to keep fostering a sense of community among fellows.

The benefits go beyond money. Another fellow, Jason Wang, invited Gao to Hawai’i. Once the sun went down, the pair drove to the summit some 13,000 feet high where the observatories sit. They wore little tubes in their noses that would give them extra oxygen to breathe safely that high up.

Wang, an expert on exoplanet imaging, was going to gather data on planets he wanted to image. Gao ran some simulations of his own. Their partnership resulted in a 2020 paper they co-published together. Gao is still sitting on a research idea from that trip he hopes to dig into this year with the help of some students.

The fellowship’s contributions don’t end once a scientist’s three or four years are up. Now in its eighth year, the program has invited earlier fellows to take on new roles.

Little things, like going home

“I go to every single 51 Pegasi b summit, and I plan to for as long as I can...It’s my favorite conference every year. It feels like I’m at home.”

Malena Rice, 51 Pegasi b Fellow

Photos: Peter Gao standing and laughing at the 2024 51 Pegasi b Summit, Brianna Lacy (2nd right) watching a presentation at the 2023 51 Pegasi b Summit, Malena Rice and Jason Wang laughing in the audience at the 2023 51 Pegasi b Summit, and Emily First (center, turquoise shirt) chats with other fellows at the 51 Pegasi b Summit.

Malena Rice, an assistant professor of astronomy at Yale University, is the first fellow to become a faculty adviser in the program. She specializes in the evolution of planetary systems, especially those different from our own. In the lab, she asks questions like: What actually leads to the diversity of systems? What sculpts planetary formation? What patterns do we see over and over again? How do solar systems evolve?

She’s grateful she can now give back to the community that helped shape her career. “I have really only been able to get to where I am because of support from so many incredible people who have been looking out for me and uplifting me throughout my career,” Rice said.

And she’s seen how the 51 Pegasi b fellowship cultivates that kind of environment. During Rice’s fellowship two years ago, she pursued research whenever opportunities arose. Oftentimes, those moments would pop up during the fellowship’s annual summit, which brings together past and current fellows. The summits are a highlight of the fellowship. Though research is a key component of these summits, so is professional development and team building. Past summits have included lessons on time management, as well as workshops on science communication and self-care—all for the betterment of the fellows.

“I go to every single 51 Pegasi b summit, and I plan to for as long as I can,” Rice said. “It’s my favorite conference every year. It feels like I’m at home.”

In fact, Rice and Gao brainstormed a project idea during last year’s summit. They’re now using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to study five planetary systems where the planets are nicely aligned with their stars’ spin, suggesting a gentle evolution. Gao, however, got to wondering about the atmospheres of these planets. The team, which includes seven Peg b fellows and alumni, will begin gathering the data to observe these systems in September.

“Little ideas that are mentioned offhand in conversations rapidly turn into these exciting programs,” Rice said. “After years of little conversations here and there, you start to really take off and have lots of these collaborations build.”

Photo: Huazhi Ge presents at the 2023 51 Pegasi b summit.

Brianna Lacy, in her fourth fellowship year, also met a research partner during a summit: Huazhi Ge. Lacy works on atmospheric models of giant exoplanets and brown dwarfs at the University of California, Santa Cruz. These days, she’s most interested in the coldest brown dwarfs. At an annual summit in 2023, Ge shared ideas on how to improve her models based on his experience modeling solar system planets, so the duo sent an archival theory proposal to NASA’s JWST. They were initially rejected, but good scientists don’t give up. The team tried again the next year with a stronger pitch and won a grant to combine results from 3D and 1D models, aiming to paint a clearer picture of cold brown dwarfs.

“That’s been awesome,” Lacy said, “and he’s someone I probably wouldn’t have met otherwise because he doesn’t go to exoplanet conferences.”

A program unlike any other

"It was a big leap for me."

Emily First, 51 Pegasi b fellow

This coexistence only adds to the fellowship’s singularity. While scientists studying our solar system don’t typically work closely with those who study exoplanets, the fellowship brings them together to paint a clearer picture of the universe. For instance, Emily First, a 2020 fellow, focuses on geology. Now an assistant professor at Macalester College, First was curious about rocky exoplanets during her fellowship, so her research largely involved measuring rocks on Earth to model how they might appear to space telescopes trained on rocky exoplanets.

First hadn’t thought much about exoplanets before the fellowship. Her work had previously touched on the Moon, a Martian meteorite, and volcanoes here on Earth—not celestial bodies beyond our solar system. 51 Pegasi b allowed her to discover new topics and experiments that she otherwise wouldn’t have been able to take on during her postdoctoral years.

“It was a big leap for me,” First said. “Working cross-disciplinarily was really challenging and really fun and interesting.” She laughs at the unexpected differences between the fields—even how geologists and astronomers think of the word “metal” varies.

Since the fellowship, First has returned to her Moon roots. She’s currently studying five lunar samples from the Apollo 17 mission that look like glassy orange beads under the microscope. She hopes they’ll tell her more about what the Moon’s magmatic processes looked like 3.5 billion years ago. And that’s what the fellowship is all about. It’s about science and space and the darkness that lies beyond our skies.

As federal funding for science declines, the power of programs like the 51 Pegasi b Fellowship is palpable. Scientists don’t do this work for the money—they do it to uncover life’s greatest mysteries: Are we alone in this universe? How do we find life beyond Earth? But to do this, they need funding.

“I’m glad to see Heising-Simons invest in things that can inspire people,” Gao said, “and make us dream bigger and further our understanding of who we are and what we are in the universe.”

Applications for the 51 Pegasi b Fellowship are now open. Apply here.

This story was written by Yessenia Funes. She is available on all major social media @yessfun.

Beyond Funding: How the 51 Pegasi b Fellowship Provides Transformational Support to Researchers in Planetary Astronomy

Where collaboration and mentorship come together

Little things, like going home

A program unlike any other

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