DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY

The Presidential Fellowship is the most prestigious fellowship awarded to graduate students by Northwestern University. It is awarded annually to graduate students who are nominated by their academic programs. A committee of accomplished faculty members from a range of disciplines and fields selected the fellowship recipients from an impressive pool of nominations.

Advised by Dr. Adam Miller, Nabeel’s research centers on building cutting-edge AI tools to advance studies of supernovae—the spectacular, explosive deaths of stars. Although they mark the end of a star’s life, supernovae also trigger the birth of a new generation of stars and accompanying planets enriched with new elements produced by the explosion, many of which are elements that pervade our daily lives. Nabeel has developed a state-of-the-art AI tool that identifies new supernovae in astronomical images in real time. Once Nabeel’s AI finds a new event, it commands secondary telescopes across the globe to quickly conduct additional, more detailed observations. These observations help Nabeel link the explosion we observe with the star that preceded it, a task which has remained challenging for decades. This link helps us better understand the contributions of supernovae to the present-day Universe as factories for life-critical elements and as key pillars in the stellar circle of life.

Nabeel’s research has been supported by two NASA Illinois Space Grant Consortium Graduate Fellowships. Before attending Northwestern, Nabeel obtained a BS from the University of Michigan in Astronomy & Astrophysics. Since leaving Michigan, he has continued research he began there, mapping dark matter in the Milky Way with Dr. Monica Valluri. Nabeel is also dedicated to producing effective and exciting visualizations that bring his research to broad audiences, and to serving his religious community through leadership roles in its professional and student networks.