Caprice Phillips, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Astronomy at Ohio State, has always aimed for the stars through her research and outreach. Now, she will have the opportunity to continue those efforts on space science’s biggest stage.

Phillips was announced on March 31 as a recipient of the NASA Hubble Fellowship, one of just 24 fellows selected for this year’s class from among over 650 postdoctoral applicants nationwide. She is one of three named a Sagan Fellow, pondering whether or not we are alone in the universe during the three-year fellowship.

Phillips’ proposal, titled “Aging in the Cosmos: JWST (James Webb Space Telescope) Insights into the Evolution of Brown Dwarf Atmospheres and Clouds,” focuses on brown dwarfs and how their atmospheres change over time.

“My very first research project, my advisor at the time was telling me about these objects called brown dwarfs,” she said. “They're kind of these in between objects and you can use them to study both planets and stars and I was like, 'This is actually really fascinating.' I think it's really cool.”

Phillips, a first-generation college student, became interested in astronomy from a young age, with her mom helping to stoke her interest in the cosmos.

“(During) trips to my grandparents’ house in rural Arkansas, my mom noticed I would stare at the moon through the window,” Phillips said. “She was like, 'Oh, why don't you learn more about that?' She took me to the library to check out books on astronomy. When we had free previews on the Science Channel I'd watch ‘How the Universe Works.’

“She really saw that in me and helped nurture my interest in that. She got me my first little telescope from JCPenney. In my eighth-grade yearbook, I wrote that my job was going to be an astronomer.”

With her path set for the stars, Phillips went on to receive a BS in physics from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock; an MA in astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin; and an MS in astronomy from Ohio State ahead of her expected doctoral completion in June.

“It's a very supportive environment,” she said. “They give you room to explore different aspects of astronomy, whether you want to do outreach, planetarium shows, equity work, different things like that. I really have enjoyed my time and the supportive environment and the supportive people like Associate Professors Ji Wang and Laura Lopez in the department that have made a world of difference in my time as a graduate student here.”

In addition to her studies, Phillips also does significant work outside of the lab and classroom. She is the vice president of Black in Astro, a grassroots organization that highlights the work of Black scientists, engineers and educators in space-related fields.

“Me and a lot of other Black students in space sciences, there’s that shared feeling of there's not many Black astronomers around,” she said. “I think there's less than 35 Black women who have a PhD in astronomy in the U.S. It's very, very small, and so I think [this work] has been driven a lot by wanting people to have community and safe spots no matter what career stage they're in.”

Phillips will complete her doctoral program in June – becoming the second Black woman within the Department of Astronomy to graduate with a PhD, after Dr. Kiersten Boley – before beginning postdoctoral work at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in addition to her NASA Hubble Fellowship.

It has been a long journey for Phillips, but the work is paying off as she moves into the next stage of her career.

“It's just shocking to me, but also, in a way, it felt very validating,” she said of receiving the fellowship. “A lot of hard work happened over these years to ever see this fellowship. I know how competitive it is. A part of it feels like luck. My roommate was like, 'No, it's not luck. You've worked really hard. You had to write a proposal. They didn't just pick you out of a hat.' I feel very honored and very lucky to have received the fellowship, so I'm very excited.”