photo by: Submitted

Hayley Beltz

A University of Kansas researcher in physics and astronomy can now claim to be a star in her own right — at least within the annals of KU history.

Postdoctoral researcher Hayley Beltz was announced Wednesday as a winner of coveted NASA Hubble Prize Fellowship, making her the first KU scientist to ever win the award.

Beltz will use the monetary award — a KU release didn’t disclose the amount, but online information about the program lists funding at about $100,000 a year for up to three years — to enhance her study of far away planets and their magnetic fields.

“Learning about these other planets helps us understand the whole range of planet formation that can happen in our galaxy,” Beltz said in a release. “And learning about magnetic fields is particularly important because magnetic fields are really important for earth and its life.”

The Hubble Prize is one of the more competitive in the world of physics and astronomy. Ian Crossfield, associate professor of physics & astronomy, and Beltz’s adviser said the award was not just a win for Beltz, but also for KU’s physics and astronomy department.

“We’re over the moon here at KU astronomy about Hayley’s award, and we’re excited to see what she does with it next,” Crossfield said.

Beltz said the award will provide her three year’s worth of funding to conduct enhanced research at KU of “exoplanets,” which are planets outside of our solar system. Beltz said the fellowship will enable her to model new types of planets, hire a summer research student, mentor undergraduates and travel to research conferences.

The fellowship program traditionally recognizes about 24 promising post-doctoral researchers per year who are doing cutting-edge research on topics that NASA has broken into three questions: How does the universe work?; How did we get here?; and Are we alone?