Black Hole Explorers Internship
The Black Hole Explorers (BHEX) Intern Program is a paid internship where students engage in science and/or engineering projects related to the Black Hole Explorer mission
Update: The 2026 Black Hole Explorers Program is Accepting Applications!
Apply through Smithsonian SOLAA: http://solaa.si.edu
(create a SOLAA account, click "start your application", and search for "Black Hole Explorers")
The internship dates are expected to be June 1 - August 7, 2026. Students will be supervised by a Smithsonian or Harvard scientist for the duration of their appointment. Students are expected to work at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian for the full duration of the program. We house our interns in Harvard's graduate student dormitory facilities. The Black Hole Explorers program coordinator is Dr. Daniel Palumbo.
Undergraduate students interested in astronomy, astrophysics, physics, computer science, machine learning, or engineering related to BHEX are encouraged to apply. We provide a wide range of projects to our interns.
The application deadline is February 15, 2026. All materials must be submitted by 11:59pm on Feb 15, 2026 to receive full consideration.
Previous projects include:
2025
Will Guan (Harvard): Phenomenology and Parameter Inference of Lensed Emission in the Kerr Geometry
Braden Nowicki (UMD): Measuring the Black Hole and Accretion Parameters of Sagittarius A* using a Semi-Analytic Model
Kratika Mazde (IAP): Studies of the Millimeter Fundamental Plane with BHEX
Vadim Bernshteyn (UA): Polarimetry with BHEX: β2 Modes as Probes of Horizon-Scale Emission Geometry
Gabriella Montano (Northeastern): A Novel Comb Generator for Frequency Phase Transfer
2024
Sol Gutiérrez-Lara (Harvard): The Role of Interferometric Phase in Measuring Black Hole Photon Rings
Aditya Tamar (MPIfR): Photon Ring Polarimetry with Next-generation Black Hole Imaging. I. M87*
Elizabeth Kozlov (Princeton): Foundations for Spin Measurement of Sagittarius A*: Photon Ring Analysis and Scattering Characterization
Alice Zhang (Stanford): Accessing a New Population of Supermassive Black Holes with BHEX
Kimberly Alonso (ASU): Optical Downlink Terminals for BHEX
