Abyss Halley, a doctoral student in the West Virginia University Department of Physics and Astronomy, and the Center for Gravitational Waves and Cosmology, has been named a 2025 Ruby Fellowship Scholar by the West Virginia University Foundation.
Established in 2011 by the Hazel Ruby McQuain Charitable Trust, the fellowship provides financial support that allows incoming doctoral-level scholars to dedicate themselves fully to expanding their studies and using their research to benefit the people of WVU, the nation and the world.
Since the Ruby Fellows program’s inception, a total of 57 students have received
financial support to continue their research at the University.
“Each year, we are excited to welcome a new cohort of exceptional scholars to WVU through the support of the Ruby Fellows program,” Paul Kreider, interim provost and vice president for academic affairs, said. “This year’s fellows are stellar examples of the innovative and dedicated students who become true changemakers in society. I look forward to watching their success.”
Abyss Halley, from Atlanta, Georgia, earned an associate degree in physical sciences from Montgomery County Community College in Philadelphia before graduating from WVU with a bachelor’s degree in physics.
“I realized who I am and decided to be that on purpose, instead of letting societal or financial pressures dictate my path — that’s why I think it worked,” Halley said.
Her research journey began through the Pulsar Search Collaboratory, where she studied bright pulses from the Crab pulsar, a neutron star. At WVU, she worked with Duncan Lorimer to analyze millisecond pulsar data in globular clusters and presented findings at several conferences, including at the Green Bank Observatory. In 2024, Halley collaborated with Emmanuel Fonseca to study how a coronal mass ejection affected pulsar timing and presented this work at the 2025 International Pulsar Timing Array meeting at the California Institute of Technology.
“I want to contribute something new and very meaningful to this grand endeavor that
is science,” Halley said. “Every contribution is important, but I want to have
this body of work and this book that I can put in my office that I wrote that says,
‘This is what I did for humanity.’”
After completing a PhD at WVU, she aims to pursue postdoctoral research at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory or the Max Planck Institute in Germany. Long-term, Halley said she hopes to teach physics and astronomy at a rural community college.
“I want to contribute something new and very meaningful to this grand endeavor that is science..”
Abyss Halley
The Hazel Ruby McQuain Charitable Trust established the Ruby Scholars Graduate Fellows program in memory of its namesake. Hazel Ruby McQuain was involved in philanthropic giving to support WVU for more than 20 years before she died at the age of 93 in 2002. One of her many gifts includes an $8 million gift toward the construction of J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital, which is named after her late husband.
The Hazel Ruby McQuain Charitable Trust recently contributed $50 million to the WVU Cancer Institute for a new state-of-the-art cancer hospital in Morgantown.
McQuain’s gifts and those from the Trust were made through the WVU Foundation, the nonprofit organization that receives and administers private donations on behalf of the University.
Full press release: https://wvutoday.wvu.edu/stories/2025/08/20/wvu-names-2025-class-of-ruby-fellows
-WVU-
akcr/8/20/25
MEDIA CONTACT: Cassie Rice
Director of Strategic Communications
WVU Foundation
304-554-0217;
crice@wvuf.org
Call 1-855-WVU-NEWS for the latest West Virginia University news and information from WVUToday.