Maria and Eric Muhlmann Award
For important research results based upon development of groundbreaking instruments and techniques
The Maria and Eric Muhlmann Award is given for recent significant observational results made possible by innovative advances in astronomical instrumentation, software, or observational infrastructure.
Please contact the Awards team if you have questions about the nomination process.
Dr. Shelley Adams Wright to receive the 2026 Maria and Eric Muhlmann Award from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for her global and innovative leadership in astrophysical instrumentation research.
Daly City, California - September 3, 2026 – The Maria and Eric Muhlmann Award is given for highly significant observational results made possible by innovative advances in astronomical instrumentation, software, or observational infrastructure. The 2026 recipient of the Muhlmann Award is Dr. Shelley Adams Wright for her global and innovative leadership in astrophysical instrumentation research. A fellow colleague praised her accomplishments in “leading significant advances in instrument designs that have enabled new measurements in fields as diverse as galaxy evolution, supermassive black holes, exoplanets, cosmic rays, and SETI.”
Dr. Wright, Professor in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics and Department of Physics at University of California, San Diego, focuses on developing innovative instruments yielding groundbreaking observations in near-infrared and optical wavelengths. Her work has led directly to a deeper understanding of extragalactic sources and important experiments in astrobiology. One of her nominators described her as, “the best science-focused instrument builder of her generation.”
Wright’s contributions started in graduate school when she built a cryogenic engineering camera integral to commissioning one of the first laser guide adaptive optics (AO) facilities on 8-10-m class telescope. Installed on Keck Observatory instruments such as the SHARC engineering camera and ultimately her contribution on OSIRIS (OH-Suppressing Infra-Red Imaging Spectrograph) a facility-class integral field spectrograph designed for and used with AO. Her contributions to AO science instruments and integral field spectroscopy played a critical role in the characterization of the supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way, ultimately contributing to the Nobel Prize awarded to Dr. Andrea Ghez in 2020.
Leading the way toward the next-generation of AO-fed integral field spectrographs providing ultra-high sensitivity and broader wavelength ranges, Wright is the Principle Investigator for Liger, the newest instrument being developed for Keck Observatory. Leveraging lessons learned from older integral field spectrograph models, Liger’s main goal is to use improved AO and new large-format near-infrared detectors to measure the motion, chemistry, and structure of cosmic targets — from distant exoplanets and black holes to early galaxies and hidden dark matter. Wright’s leadership qualities were noted by a nominator for “the best-run instrument project in the Keck collaboration (by far) with a science-driven design, carefully-phased risk reduction, a mature budget and schedule, and a world-class team that Prof. Wright has assembled.”
Dr. Wright also has the distinction of being a pioneer in the field of optical SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) instrumentation. While a student, she helped develop an instrument for Lick Observatory that scans thousands of individual stars and galaxies for laser pulses in the visible spectrum. Wright was the Principal Investigator for NIROSETI, the first ever instrument designed to search for laser signals in near-infrared light. Most revolutionary is the latest project she is leading, Panoramic SETI, a joint collaboration with UC San Diego, UC Berkeley, Harvard University, and Caltech that uses innovative wide-field 0.5m telescopes with unique detector technologies. These budget friendly, smaller telescopes capture a wide spot of brief flashes of Cherenkov radiation andalso of high-energy gamma rays from deep space. While built to search for signs of extraterrestrial advanced technology, instruments like NIROSETI and PANOSETI also break new ground in time-domain astrophysics to capture explosive events by opening a window to observe the universe on sub-second and nanosecond time scales, something traditional telescopes completely miss.
Alongside her many additional awards and honors, Wright is a sought-after speaker with over 70 invitations around the world. She has taught for almost 25 years, created outreach activities and TED talks, advised many undergrad and graduate students and has extensive media coverage in such distinguished publications as TIME Magazine, Physics Today, Sky & Telescope, and Air & Space Magazine. Wright was awarded the 2022 SETI Institute Drake Award in recognition of her decades-long pioneering work in developing innovative optical and near-infrared instruments for searching for extraterrestrial intelligence.
