The Extrasolar Planet Research Group is highly cross disciplinary with several members working in both exoplanets and other fields. Below you can find a short biography of the various group members...
people
Giovanna Tinetti is a lecturer at UCL and a Royal Society University Research Fellow. Her expertise is spectral modelling of planetary atmospheres. In particular, she pioneered in 2007 the use of infrared primary transit spectroscopy as a diagnostic of exoplanet atmospheres, which culminated in the first discovery of water in the atmosphere of an exoplanet.
Ofer Lahav is the Perren Chair for Astronomy and Head of Astrophysics. Ofer provides expertise in statistical analysis, Bayesian techniques and radial velocity modelling. He and Sree Balan developed the ExoFit software package.
Alan Aylward is the Head of the Atmospheric Physics Laboratory (APL). Alan works on the modelling of both solar system and extrasolar planetary atmospheres, in particular the upper atsmosphere, and also future instrumentation for exoplanet observations.
Prof. Jonathan Tennyson is the Head of the Physics & Astronomy Department and a Royal Society Fellow. Jonathan leads the research group in molecular spectroscopy. His water line list, BT2, is the benchmark list for planetary and stellar atmopsheric models.
Jean-Philippe Beaulieu is an expert in multiple fields including microlensing of extrasolar planets, ground and spaced-based photometry of transiting exoplanets and many others outside of exoplanetology. Although stationed at the IAP, Paris, Jean-Philippe is an honourary reader at UCL. Jean-Philippe led the team that discovered the first cold Super-Earth in 2005.
Steve Fossey is a Teaching Fellow in Astronomy based at the University of London Observatory, part of UCL. Steve works on transiting extrasolar planets and made the discovery of the transit of the longest period exoplanet to date, HD 80606b. As well as observation, Steve also works on predicting the detectability of exomoons with future and current telescopes.
David Kipping develops novel techniques for the detection of exomoons and low mass exoplanets as well as working on lightcurve modelling and exoplanet observations. David assists with several other exoplanet-related studies such as space and ground-based observations.
Ingo Waldmann is a new PhD student at UCL working on both observations of exoplanets and improved data reduction techniques. Ingo’s work includes both transiting exoplanets and microlensing techniques.
Giammarco Campanella is a master’s student from Rome working with Giovanna Tinetti and David Kipping on detecting the moons of extrasolar planets, so-called exomoons. Giammy is about to start his PhD at Queen Mary University, London.
Serena Viti is a Reader at the Dept. Of Physics and Astronomy: “Although my main research interests lie in the studies of star formation, some of my work is related to the characterization of potential hosts for extrasolar planets, such as M dwarfs and brown dwarfs. In particular, I am interested in spectroscopic studies at high resolution of very low mass objects.”
staff
students
Bob Barber works on generating molecular line lists which are used for detecting molecules in the atmopshere of extrasolar planets. Bob has recently been working on ammonia line lists which will hopefully aid in the search for this elusive molecule.
Peter Doel is a lecturer in astronomy and develops astronomical instrumentation. The development of instrumentation is critical to the exoplanet mission and could one day be used to detect life on an Earth-like exoplanet.
Tommi Koskinen is a post-doctorate researcher in the Atmopsheric Physics Laboratory researching the atmospheres of extrasolar planets. His recent modelling work has focussed on eccentric orbit planets and the evaporation and characteristics of upper atmospheres.
Professor Stixrude is interested in the physics and chemistry of major planet forming materials at conditions typical of planetary interiors. He uses quantum mechanical simulations based on density functional theory to probe the behaviour of materials at pressures up to 1 Gbar and temperatures up to several eV, a range that likely encompasses all solar and extra-solar planets discovered to date.
Professor Steve Miller is an atmospheric scientist working closely with Jonathon, Bob and Alan to more fully understand the exotic atmospheres of extrasolar planets. Steve is currently on sabbatical leave but will return to UCL in September.
Image credits: NASA, ESA, RAS, UCL, G. Bacon (STScI), Dan Durda, Andy McLatchie & Sylvain Girard