Ph.D. candidate Quang Tran received a $430,000 fellowship from the Heising-Simons Foundation on March 28 for his research in the field of astronomy.

As a postdoctoral fellow, Tran will continue his research at Yale University for the next three years. In his independent research, Tran studies young stars outside of the solar system and their exoplanets, and then uses that data to test current theories about planet formation. 

The Heising-Simons Foundation also gave out awards this year to seven other early-career researchers in planetary astronomy. The foundation will support Tran’s research funds and his stipend. 

“I think my (research) is really niche in a good way,” Tran said. “It’s a small field, but it gets at really important, deep questions about the universe. Foundational stuff like how planets evolve over time, how that improve(s) our understanding of the universe, how we came to be and where we’re headed.” 

Tran said the young stars he studies are around 100 million years old. He said these stars are similar to really loud babies because of the noise they make with the light they emit. The loud, static light these stars give off contains information about what their planets look like and how they formed, he said. 

“Looking at things at a younger age can give us a snapshot, like a picture into the past, and give us an understanding of how we even came to be, how our configuration of planets came to be,” Tran said. 

Brendan Bowler, an assistant professor in UT’s astronomy department, said Tran is known in the astronomy community for designing creative experiments and publishing his results quickly. 

Bowler acted as a supervisor to Tran since he started studying at the University and said Tran is proactive in gaining the skills needed to move forward with his research at Yale.

“He has worked harder than anyone I’ve known in this context, and he’s absolutely deserving of this opportunity,” Bowler said. “I hope he has fun and is productive and successful moving forward.”