Andrew Saydjari Wins IAU Ph.D. Prize

Cambridge, MA (September 24, 2025)— Andrew Saydjari has been awarded an International Astronomical Union (IAU) Ph.D. Prize for his thesis, titled "Statistical Models of the Spatial, Kinematic, and Chemical Complexity of Dust." He completed this work while at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA).

The prize celebrates outstanding scientific achievements made globally in astrophysics and is awarded annually in each of the IAU’s nine divisions. Saydjari received the prize in the Division of Interstellar Matter and Local Universe, which this year received 118 applications. The award provides a travel grant to the IAU General Assembly to be held in Rome, Italy in August 2027 and an invitation to give a talk on his work.

Saydjari received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2024, where he studied with Doug Finkbeiner, CfA professor of astronomy and physics at Harvard University, and is now a NASA Hubble Fellow at Princeton University.

Saydjari's research focuses on extracting information from large astronomical surveys. By creating a better understanding of the hardware involved in processing astronomical data, such as telescopes, cameras, spectrographs, and computing clusters, Saydjari creates maps that help us better understand our place in the Milky Way galaxy, how our galaxy is evolving over time, and where stars are forming and why. His thesis focused on structures on large scales similar to that of the Milky Way.

While working on his Ph.D., Saydjari created the the DECaPS2 survey, the largest photometric catalog ever obtained with a single camera. He also used the Gaia and SDSS-V surveys to create two of the largest catalogs of stellar and dust absorption features generated from stellar spectroscopy, and generated the deepest and highest angular resolution 3D spatial map of our Milky Way's interstellar dust. These catalogs made significant improvements in survey systematics and error estimation.

Saydjari is currently creating a new 3D map of dust location and movement in our galaxy. He is using new observations from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to probe the 3D structures of clouds and dust in the Milky Way on small scales, similar to that of our Solar System.

"Andrew's thesis pushes the frontier of understanding interstellar dust in all its dimensions— where it resides, how it flows, and what it is made of," said Catherine Zucker, an astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, who provided a letter of support to Saydjari for his award. "By mapping the structure, dynamics, and composition of dust, Andrew is opening the door to new studies of the interstellar medium, star formation, and the chemical evolution of our galaxy."

Resource: 
Saydjari, A.K., “Statistical Models of the Spatial, Kinematic, and Chemical Complexity of Dust,” 06 May 2024, https://dash.harvard.edu/entities/publication/cc6fab9c-575c-4376-b195-38e504ec1e6e

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