The Amelia Earhart Fellowship was established in 1938 in honour of pilot Amelia Earhart who was a famous air pioneer in the 1920s and 1930s and a member of Zonta International. By her example, Amelia Earhart encouraged women to expand their horizons by exploring occupations and holding positions beyond those traditionally held by women. By supporting the Amelia Earhart Fellowships, Zonta International encourages women to enter aerospace engineering and space science fields and keep the Earhart legacy alive.

This $10 000 USD Amelia Earhart fellowship is awarded to up to 30 women worldwide annually who are pursuing a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering and space sciences. Since the fellowships inception it has been awarded to 1 365 women from 79 different countries. Erin was awarded this fellowship in 2025 for her PhD work in laser guide star adaptive optics. She did her undergrad and honours at ANU and is now in the third year of her PhD. Erin’s research investigates the use of a point diffraction interferometer wavefront sensor to measure the wavefront phase in strong atmospheric turbulence. In these conditions, not only is the phase of the wavefront perturbed, but so is the amplitude, an effect known as scintillation. When strong scintillation occurs, the performance of traditional wavefront sensing techniques deteriorates.

To ensure continual connectivity between satellites and the Earth, new methods need to be investigated that are not impacted by scintillation. Erin’s thesis involves modelling the behaviour of a point diffraction interferometer, testing it in the lab and on-sky, at the European Space Agency Optical Ground Station, as well as investigating non-traditional phase retrieval methods such as machine learning.

More information about the Amelia Earhart fellowship can be found here.