2026 Amelia Earhart Fellow: Haleigh Nyberg (nee Brown)

Haleigh Nyberg (nee Brown) is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and a Ph.D. candidate in earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences at Purdue University, where she conducts research under the guidance of Dr. Stephanie Olson. Her research focuses on the computational modeling of exoplanetary urability, the potential for a location to host an origin of life.

Ms. Nyberg’s dissertation aims to establish a new framework for prioritizing exoplanet mission targets, explicitly differentiating between a planet’s capacity to sustain life versus its potential to originate it. By simulating exoplanetary environments using general circulation models, she tracks how factors like planetary obliquity influence wet-dry cycles and the accumulation of prebiotic organics. This work will culminate in the Origin of Life Index, a metric designed to guide future missions like NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory, toward exoplanetary targets most likely to originate life.

Complementing her foundational astrobiology research, Ms. Nyberg is deeply invested in applied space mission development. As a lead data science researcher, she guided a 16-member multi-university team to build a dynamic, Unreal Engine-based visualization tool for NASA’s Lunar Gateway project.

Ms. Nyberg also holds a bachelor’s degree in computational physics from the University of Montana, where she optimized high-altitude balloon trajectory predictions. Dedicated to Zonta International’s mission of women’s empowerment, she is the founding treasurer of the Purdue Golden Z Club and served as a graduate mentor for the Amelia Earhart Leadership for Space Careers program. She also co-founded PortAL Linking Artists and Scientists (PALLAS) to enhance interdisciplinary scientific communication.

Outside of academia, Ms. Nyberg enjoys mending old CRT TVs, digital art and spending time with her two cats and husband.