Research Team

Ludmila Carone is a post-doctoral researcher working on 3D climate dynamics of extrasolar planets. She is furthermore incorporating chemistry and state-of-the-art radiative transfer schemes into a 3D exoplant atmosphere model to a) investigate habitability of rocky exoplanets and b) to make predictions for observables of extrasolar gas planets that will be observed with the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope.

Nestor Espinoza is a post-doctoral researcher and inaugural MPIA-Bern Bernoulli Fellow. He works on both the detection and characterization of transiting exoplanets, using both ground-based and space-based facilities. His work is focused on the characterization of exoplanet atmospheres and its link to planet formation using current (e.g., Magellan/IMACS) and future (e.g., ELTs, JWST) facilities.

www.nestor-espinoza.com

Niall is a postdoctoral researcher focussing on substellar objects known as brown dwarfs, giant planets in wide orbits, free-floating planetary-mass objects and the effect of stellar multiplicity on planet occurrence. He uses data from a both the Spitzer space telescope and wide-field astronomical surveys such as Pan-STARRS

Sebastian Marino is a postdoctoral researcher focussing on the study of debris discs. He is interested in both the dust and gas components of these systems, which he uses to:
a) derive the distribution of planetesimals in a system
b)  constrain the composition of planetesimals/exocomets
c) assess whether the presence of planets can be inferred from the disc observed structures. His research mainly involves the analysis of ALMA observations, but also the use of numerical simulations to study the gaseous and collisional evolution of discs, and interactions with planets.

André is working on the detection and characterization of extrasolar planets around young, nearby stars using direct imaging observation techniques. His research mostly makes use of state-of-the-art instruments, such as NaCo and SPHERE, ranging from optical to thermal infrared wavelengths.

Nicole is a post-doctoral researcher working on the characterisation of debris discs and their transition from protoplanetary discs. She uses different state-of-the-art modelling codes to investigate the disc morphologies and spectral energy distributions and is involved in disc observations with SPHERE and the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope.A

Miriam is a PhD student working with Thomas Henning and Roy van Boekel.
She is interested in the link between the evolution of protoplanetary disks and planet formation. With the focus on transition disks, she analyses scattered light images obtained with instruments such as VLT/SPHERE through radiative transfer calculations in order to investigate the disk morphology and potential imprints of planet formation.

Asmita is a PhD student working with Prof. Henning and Rolf Kuiper. They are investigating protostellar collapse in the low mass regime via detailed thermodynamical modeling in terms of radiation transport and phase transitions using PLUTO as a tool. She is also interested in understanding the physics involved in formation and early evolution of circumstellar accretion disks.

Karan is interested in the comparative climatology to investigate diversity of exo(planetary) atmospheres and their chemistry, in particular for terrestrial planets, to predict how atmospheric biosignature gases might appear in atmospheric spectra of rocky planets (e.g. on Super-Earths).

Paula is a PhD student working with Prof Henning, Prof Mordasini, and Dr Mancini on detecting and characterising transiting exoplanets. She is also interested in answering fundamental questions such as the evolution of transiting Hot Jupiters and how the theory of planet formation can explain the architecture of such systems.
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