McDonald Observatory’s Andrew Mann Wins Prestigious Hubble Fellowship

9 April 2015

AUSTIN — Astronomer Andrew Mann of The University of Texas at Austin has been awarded a Hubble Fellowship from NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute, science center for the Hubble Space Telescope.

“It is an honor to receive the Hubble Fellowship, and I look forward to continuing my research at UT Austin,” Mann said.

The Hubble Fellowship Program includes all research relevant to present and future missions relating to NASA’s Cosmic Origins program. These missions currently include the Herschel Space Observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, and the Spitzer Space Telescope. Seventeen Hubble Fellows were chosen this year.

Mann studies planets outside our solar system, including both their demographics (how often they occur and around what types of stars) and their fundamental properties like size, chemical content, and more. He plans to use his fellowship to continue this work at McDonald Observatory.

“I'm particularly excited to continue working with the IGRINS instrument on the Harlan J. Smith Telescope to better characterize red dwarf stars, especially those with detected planets,” Mann said.

“I congratulate Andrew Mann on winning one of the most competitive fellowships in astronomy to continue his work at McDonald," said Taft Armandroff, the observatory’s director.

Mann received his PhD in 2013 from the University of Hawaii, and for the past two years has held the Harlan J. Smith Post-doctoral Fellowship at McDonald Observatory.

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Science contacts:

Dr. Andrew Mann
McDonald Observatory
The University of Texas at Austin
512-471-6463

Dr. Robert Williams
Space Telescope Science Institute
410-338-4963

Andrew Mann