2026 Davidson Fellow Hitaishi Chillara was recently featured by CBS Austin for his research on the growth of supermassive black holes.
Chillara, 17, of Leander, Texas, received a $50,000 Davidson Fellows Scholarship for his project, “Connecting Supermassive Black Hole Growth to Observables: A Framework Using Cosmological Simulations and LSST Predictions.”
For his project, Chillara developed a computational framework that combines astronomical data to estimate the masses of supermassive black holes. His work aims to help researchers use large datasets to better understand the evolution of galaxies and their central black holes.
Chillara attends the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science. He has also earned a silver medal in the U.S. Physics Olympiad and was selected to represent Team USA at the International Artificial Intelligence Olympiad. He plans to study astrophysics and electrical engineering.
Read the full feature from CBS Austin: “Leander teen awarded $50,000 scholarship for supermassive black hole research.”