Providing Pioneers for the Future
The NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) offers unique postdoc research opportunities to highly talented national and international individuals to engage in ongoing NASA research programs at a NASA Center, NASA Headquarters, or at a NASA-affiliated research institution.
These one- to three-year Fellowship appointments are competitive and are designed to advance NASA’s missions in space science, earth science, aeronautics, space operations, exploration systems, and astrobiology.
Latest News
During primary school, NPP postdoc Jovan Tadic’s fascination with pyrotechnics compelled him to create homemade firecrackers and rockets. Now he’s putting that scientific curiosity to use at Ames Research Center.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that the corrosive marine environment of the Florida coast can wreak havoc on metals and machinery. But when that machinery happens to be rockets and the facilities designed to launch them, NASA turns to highly specialized researchers like Dr. Eliza Montgomery, an NPP postdoc who understands the causes of corrosion and how to manage the problem in complex space vehicles.
Dr. Eric Boyd’s fascination with geothermal springs—those often colorful, percolating pools of mineral-rich water—was sparked as a youngster on family camping trips to Yellowstone National Park. Little did Boyd know that those early family camping trips would serve as a springboard to a career as a scientist and researcher in Yellowstone and other geothermal hotspots out west.
NPP advisor Phil Neudeck and NPP Fellow Andy Woodworth are developing promising new technology at NASA Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field as part of a cooperative agreement between NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Program. Their work on silicon carbide (SiC) power transmission and power electronic technology will improve the efficiency of the next generation of electric and hybrid-electric vehicles. For example, it will make feasible much smaller, lighter, more efficient power electronic components. Dr. Neudeck and Dr. Woodworth recently visited Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn., to deliver an update on their efforts to grow SiC crystals in the lab. The Vehicle Technologies Program is part of a larger national initiative to strengthen America’s energy security through public-private partnerships that enhance energy efficiency and bring clean, reliable energy technologies to the marketplace.
Dr. John Debes, a postdoc participant in the NASA Postdoctoral Program (administered by Oak Ridge Associated Universities) at Goddard Space Flight Center, hopes to unlock the secrets of the evolution of planets through his research. Behind Debes is a graphic of a debris disk, massive amounts of dust caused by collisions between asteroids and comets that gather around forming planets.
Dr. Amber Straughn, who recently completed her NPP Postdoc Fellowship at Goddard Space Flight Center, serves at Goddard as the lead scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Education and Public Outreach Program. The JWST, which has about seven times more collecting area in its primary mirror than the Hubble Space Telescope, will orbit around the L2 Lagrange point 930,000 miles from Earth, building upon knowledge gained from the Hubble and allowing astronomers to gather new information about the formation of the universe.
Photo Credit: NASA
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