NExScI Science Staff

Click here for a list of publications by NExScI scientists or click on the individual links below.

Research Interests: Rachel studies how stars and planets form using many techniques, particularly high angular resolution observations with interferometers from infrared to millimeter wavelengths. These observations probe the physical structure and evolution of the disks around young stars which serve as a conduit of material onto the star and are also the reservoir of material from which planetary systems form.

Chas Beichman - link to publications

Research Interests: Chas's research goals include searching for planets and evidence for planets such as debris disks around nearby young stars. Additionally, he is interested in understanding the formation and evolution of distant infrared-bright galaxies and their relationship to the Cosmic Infrared Background.

Bruce Berriman - link to publications

Research Interests: Bruce works on two types of science projects: (1) investigation of the application of information technology to astronomical data processing; and (2) discovery of brown dwarfs through archival research, especially through cross-matching large catalogs.

Carolyn Brinkworth - link to publications

Research Interests: Carolyn searches for dusty disks around isolated white dwarfs and binary systems, in an effort to understand the eventual fate of solar systems like our own as the parent star evolves off the main sequence. She also has an ongoing project to study the spin periods of isolated magnetic white dwarfs.

David Ciardi - link to publications

Research Interests: David has a long standing interest in study of exoplanets, young stellar objects and star formation. He is a member of the CoRoT and Kepler Follow-up observing teams. Working with his collaborators, he is working to understand the evolution and formation of exoplanets around young stars.

Dawn Gelino - link to publications

Research Interests: Dawn studies low-mass x-ray binaries (LMXBs) primarily in the IR and optical, from both ground and space, in order to measure the light coming from each of the components in these interacting systems, model the ellipsoidal variations from the secondary stars, and determine system parameters such as the mass of the compact objects in the systems. She also studies phase functions of exoplanets and am part of the Transit Ephemeris Refinement and Monitoring Survey (TERMS) team (PI: S. Kane).

Stephen Kane - link to publications

Research Interests: Stephen's interests lie in the detection and characterization of exoplanets using the microlensing, transit, and radial velocity techniques. He is the PI of the TERMS and WASP0 projects and a member of the SuperWASP, PLANET, MARVELS, PTF, and ASTrO projects.

Shri Kulkarni - link to publications

Research Interests: Shri has worked on millisecond pulsars, old neutron stars, young neutron stars, brown dwarfs, soft gamma-ray repeaters, supernova remnants, gamma-ray bursts and new types of optical transients. He loves surfing the electromagnetic spectrum and building new gizmos.

Rafael Millan-Gabet - link to publications

Research Interests: Rafael works primarily in support of the Keck Interferometer. His main research interests are in the study of disks around young stellar objects using optical interferometers, and in the development of state of the art instrumentation for them. Currently, he has collaborative projects at the CHARA Array and VLTI.

Peter Plavchan - link to publications

Research Interests: Peter studies the formation and frequency of planets around low mass stars and young stars. He makes use of a variety of observational techniques, including near-infrared radial velocity instrumentation, photometric variability, transits, and infrared excess.

Solange Ramirez - link to publications

Research Interests: Solange's science projects involve the study of Young Stellar Objects at the Galactic Center by identifying their IR ice and spectral features, modeling their IR spectra, and determining their masses and luminosities.

Kaspar von Braun - link to publications

Research Interests: Kaspar's research involves the detection of exoplanet transits around stars in open clusters and around stars with planets known from radial velocity searches. Additionally, he works on characterization of late-type exoplanet host stars using interferometric measurements. Finally, he researches the optimization of observing techniques in exoplanet transit surveys.