Michael C. Liu joined the IfA as the sixth recipient of the Beatrice Watson Parrent Fellowship. This fellowship, funded by an endowment from the estate of Beatrice Watson Parrent, supports a postdoctoral fellow at the IfA for up to three years. This prestigious fellowship is well known in astronomical circles and is sought after by the world's most promising new doctoral recipients in astronomy. Dr. Liu received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 2000. His research interests include the cosmological distance scale, the formation of the oldest galaxies in the Universe, and searches for extrasolar planets and planetary systems.

http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~mliu/

Andisheh "Andi" Mahdavi received his doctorate from Harvard University this year and arrived at the IfA in September. He is the holder of a Chandra X-Ray Observatory Postdoctoral Fellowship from NASA. These awards are given to those with recent doctorates in astronomy, physics, and related disciplines who have contributed to the understanding of X-ray sources. Dr. Mahdavi's areas of research include groups and clusters of galaxies and dark matter halos.

http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~amahdavi/