Nikole K. Lewis has been named a 2012 Sagan Fellow. These highly competitive NASA fellowships, which provide a generous salary and travel budget for three years, are aimed at supporting the top recent Ph.D. graduates nationwide in the area of exoplanets. They can be hosted at any U.S. institution; Nikole will be doing her work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Nikole's successful proposal is to perform atmospheric circulation modeling and analyze observations of the hot Jupiters---giant planets at 0.1 AU or less from their stars---with the aim of characterizing the dynamical and chemical behavior of their atmospheres. Nikole, who worked with Adam Showman, successfully defended her dissertation (Atmospheric Circulation of Eccentric Extrasolar Giant Planets) on April 16, 2012, and plans to start at MIT in late summer or fall 2012.

Congratulations, Nikole!