At the inaugural Notre Dame Postdoc Spotlight, held on November 6, 2025, Dr. Khushi Bhatt was awarded the Community Choice Award for Excellence in Research Communication in the final round, recognizing her outstanding ability to communicate complex research in an engaging and accessible way. The event, organized by the Graduate School, University of Notre Dame, brought together postdoctoral scholars from across disciplines to showcase their work to the wider Notre Dame community.

Dr. Bhatt’s journey to this honor began in early October, when she competed in the College of Science Postdoc Lightning Talk Competition. There, she earned second place for her three-minute presentation titled “Recreating the stars in the lab”, in which she described how her work uses particle accelerators to simulate the nuclear reactions that occur in stellar explosions — helping to unravel how elements like niobium form in the cosmos.

Advancing to the university-wide Postdoc Spotlight final, Dr. Bhatt’s presentation again resonated with attendees. Her clarity, enthusiasm, and ability to connect fundamental nuclear astrophysics to big-picture questions about the origins of elements earned her the community’s favor. Event organizers noted that the presentations were “nothing short of jaw-dropping.”

Bhatt is a Provost’s Postdoctoral Society of Science Fellow and holds a postdoctoral research associate appointment in the research group of Prof. Anna Simon-Robertson in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at Notre Dame. Her win underscores not just her scientific prowess, but also her growing reputation as a skilled science communicator — a role that bridges her deep expertise in nuclear astrophysics with the public’s wonder about the cosmos.

Congratulations to Dr. Bhatt on this remarkable achievement — and thanks to her for helping make nuclear-astrophysics accessible, inspiring, and compelling to the Notre Dame community and beyond.