After studying physics in Germany, Frebel received her PhD from the Australian National University's Mt. Stromlo Observatory in 2007. For her work on "Abundance Analysis of Bright Metal-Poor Stars from the 'Hamburg/ESO Survey", Frebel was awarded the 2007 Charlene Heisler Prize. She then received the WJ McDonald Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Texas at Austin before taking up the Clay Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in early 2009. She was awarded the 2009 Ludwig-Biermann young astronomer award of the German Astronomical Society as well as the 2010 Annie Jump Cannon Award of the American Astronomical Society.