Hitaishi Chillara, 17, of Leander, has been awarded a $50,000 Davidson Fellows Scholarship for his science project, Connecting Supermassive Black Hole Growth to Observables: A Framework Using Cosmological Simulations and LSST Predictions. The Davidson Fellows Scholarship is one of the nation’s most prestigious honors for students 18 and younger.
“I am grateful to be named a Davidson Fellow,” Chillara said. “I admire the institute’s values toward aspects of science that are often invisible at first: finding out not only what research can do, but also where its boundaries lie, so that we may ask better questions. For me, the award is an opportunity to share my habit of careful questioning, and I hope that I can inspire youth to do the same.”
For his project, Chillara developed a computational framework that combines multiple data points to calculate the mass of supermassive black holes. His framework could help scientists make better use of the large amounts of data available to study how galaxies and their central black holes evolve together.
Chillara attends the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science and hopes to study astrophysics and electrical engineering. His honors include a silver medal in the U.S. Physics Olympiad and selection for Team USA at the International Artificial Intelligence Olympiad.
“The Davidson Fellows continue to demonstrate what young people can accomplish when curiosity, determination and innovation come together,” said Bob Davidson, founder of the Davidson Institute. “The 2026 Fellows have pursued challenging questions and developed meaningful work with the potential to make a lasting difference in their fields and communities. We are proud to recognize their extraordinary achievements.”
The Davidson Fellows Scholarship program offers college scholarships to students 18 or younger who have completed significant projects that have the potential to benefit society in the fields of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, literature and music. The Davidson Fellows Scholarship has provided more than $11.4 million in scholarship funds to 490 students since its inception in 2001, and has been named one of the most prestigious undergraduate scholarships by U.S. News & World Report. It is a program of the Davidson Institute, a national nonprofit organization headquartered in Reno, Nev., that supports profoundly gifted youth.
