NASA annouced the selection of five exoplanet scientists who will receive the 2013 Carl Sagan Exoplanet Postdoctoral Fellowships today. One is former LCOGT postdoc Avi Shporer. The fellowship, named for the late astronomer, was created to inspire the next generation of explorers seeking to learn more about planets, and possibly life, around other stars. The primary goal of the fellowship program is to support outstanding recent postdoctoral scientists in conducting independent research related to the science goals of NASA's Exoplanet Exploration Program.
Avi Shporer
Shporer, who received his Ph.D. from Tel Aviv University in 2009, started studying exoplanets to support his doctoral thesis, "Transiting Extrasolar Planets: Detection and Follow-up." He took on his first postdoc that same year with LCOGT and UC Santa Barbara. At LCOGT, Shporer continued his exoplanet research while also helping to specify Las Cumbres Observatory telescope and instrument development in support of his science mission.
Shporer has co-authored over 100 refereed papers, and has been the lead author of ten. His works have received nearly 4000 citations.
He is currently serving as a postdoctoral scholar with the California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena, Calif. He is pursuing the detection of massive extrasolar planets that do not transit their parent stars, using the high-quality Kepler photometry.
The NASA Carl Sagan Fellowship program, created in 2008, awards selected postdoctoral scientists with annual stipends of $65,500 for up to three years, plus an annual research budget of up to $16,000.
