Dániel Apai, PhD
Associate Dean for Science
Professor, Astronomy and Planetary Sciences

Daniel’s research projects include exoplanet and brown dwarf atmospheres, astrobiology, planet formation, and the search for habitable exoplanets. He is using ground- and space-based telescopes to study planet formation, search for new worlds, and characterize them. His work also includes connecting the stages of planet formation in the Solar System to those observed in protoplanetary disks around other stars.

Kevin Hardegree-Ullman, PhD
Alien Earths Postdoctoral Researcher

Kevin received his PhD from the University of Toledo in 2018 for his work in constraining planet occurrence rates for mid-type M dwarfs in the Kepler field. His research in exoplanet demographics continued at Caltech/IPAC-NExScI through 2021, where he identified the planet radius valley in K2 data, confirming that the key result from the Kepler mission holds up throughout different regions of the galaxy. At Steward Observatory, Kevin published influential papers on the capabilities of the upcoming Extremely Large Telescopes (GMT, TMT, EELT) to probe Earth-like levels of atmospheric O2 in nearby planets using the Bioverse framework.

Visit Kevin’s website at: https://kevinkhu.com

Brittany Miles, PhD.
51 Peg b and President’s Postdoctoral Fellow

Brittany uses mid-infrared spectroscopy to characterize the atmospheres of brown dwarfs and gas giant exoplanets and works toward improving ground-based mid-infrared instruments to characterize existing exoplanets and find Earth-like planets.

Visit Kevin’s website at: https://bemiles.github.io

Rachael Amaro, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Researcher

Rachael is postdoctoral researcher studying the atmospheres of brown dwarfs in tight white dwarf-brown dwarf binaries and stellar heterogeneity in exoplanet host stars.

Dat (Fuda) Nguyen
LPL Graduate Student

Fuda is interested in the physics and habitability of exoplanets and characterization of their atmosphere. He is currently working on brown dwarfs’ atmosphere variability through time-resolved light-curve observations. Previously he also worked on dust physics in exoplanet atmosphere and the ISM. As an astronomer from Vietnam, he is very interested in astronomy outreach to underrepresented communities in academia, internationally and domestically.
Website: https://fudanguyen.wordpress.com

Arin M. Avsar
LPL Graduate Student

Arin is a 3rd year graduate student working on direct imaging of debris disks, which are the rocky and icy leftovers of planet formation. These Asteroid and Kuiper Belt analogs give us insight into how young planetary systems evolve over time, which is essential to understanding the early history of Earth and our Solar System. 

Matthew Murphy
Astronomy Graduate Student

Matthew is a 5th year graduate student working with Thomas Beatty (U Wisconsin-Madison) and Daniel Apai. Matthew is exploring the limb asymmetries of transiting giant exoplanets using space-based telescopes.

Visit Matthew’s website to learn more about his work!

Chaucer Langbert
LPL Graduate Student

Chaucer is a 2nd-year planetary sciences graduate student. Chaucer is studying how feedback cycles impact potentially habitable planets, including potential for convergence/divergence and chaos.

Kevin Wagner, PhD
Assistant Research Professor

Dr. Kevin Wagner is an Assistant Research Professor at the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory. Dr. Wagner’s research focuses on directly detecting and studying planets around nearby stars, with a specific focus on finding and characterizing potentially life supporting planets. His team’s recent work has enabled imaging planets that are approximately Neptune-sized in the habitable zones of the closest Sun-like stars, such as Alpha Centauri and Sirius, which shows that imaging smaller, potentially Earth-like planets is within reach of upcoming telescopes.

Visit Kevin’s website at: Kevin’s website

Martin Schlecker, PhD
Alien Earths Postdoctoral Researcher

Martin studies the formation of planetary systems with a focus on exoplanet demographics and planets around cool stars. His tools of choice are population synthesis models and statistical analyses of planet populations. He is also involved in programs that search for new exoplanets with the transit and radial velocity techniques. Martin received his PhD from the University of Heidelberg and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in 2021 for his work on the architectures of multi-planet systems. He joined the group in 2022.
Visit Martin’s website at https://matiscke.github.io

Gabriel Weible
PhD Student

Gabe is PhD student in Astronomy. His research focuses on high-contrast direct imaging of exoplanets and brown dwarfs using ground-based telescopes. Some of his current work includes the characterization of a circumbinary brown dwarf in the Pleiades, including analysis of its orbit, spectrum, and possible formation scenarios.
Website: www.gabeweible.com

Veronica Klawender
Space Grant Awardee, Undergraduate Student
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Astronomy; Astrobiology

Veronica is studying the viability of microbial organisms – mainly methanogens – under extreme conditions to understand the potential of extrasolar oceans to harbor unicellular life. Veronica is also part of the Atmospherica team, where she studies the viability of coccolithophores in photobioreactors.