Group
Astroweiss Group
The astroweiss group includes postdoctoral scholars, graduate students, and undergraduate students who are studying diverse topics related to exoplanet system architectures and planetary compositions and formation. Group members are currently supported at two sites: University of Notre Dame and University of Hawaii, Manoa.
Astroweiss Group, 2023 (Notre Dame)
L to R: Lauren Weiss, Matthias He, Aaron Householder, Alex Thomas, Jared Kolecki, Carlos Jurado, Matthew Doty, David Shaw. Not pictured: Casey Brinkman, Jingwen Zhang.
Astroweiss Group, 2021 (U. Hawaii)
L to R: Dan Huber, Jingwen Zhang, Lauren Weiss, Casey Brinkman.
Postdoctoral Scholars
Dr. Matthias Yang He (2022-2024), Notre Dame
Determining the Most Common Planetary System Architectures
Graduate Students
Jared Kolecki (2023-), Notre Dame
Elemental Abundances of Planet-Hosting Stars
C. Alex Thomas (2022-), Notre Dame,
PhD Candidate
Hidden in Plain Sight: Predicting Undetected Planets in Known Exoplanet Systems
A Tale of Two Peas in a Pod: Mass Uniformity in the Kepler-323 and Kepler-104 systems (published in The Astronomical Journal)
David Shaw (2022-), Notre Dame
Masses and orbits in Kepler's Highest Multiplicity System from RVs and TTVs
Mass Diversity in the Kepler-90 eight-planet system (AAS Chambliss Award, 2023)
Casey Brinkman (2019-2024), U. Hawaii, PhD
PhD Thesis: "Planets Made of Star Stuff: The Diversity of Earth-Sized Exoplanet Compositions In Relation To Their Host Stars" (co-supervised by Prof. Dan Huber)
The Compositions of Rocky Planets in Close-in Orbits Tend to be Earth-Like (submitted to The Astronomical Journal, link)
Revisiting the Relationship Between Rocky Exoplanet and Stellar Compositions: Reduced Evidence for a Super-Mercury Population (accepted for publication at The Astronomical Journal, link)
Masses and Densities of the Kepler-102 Planets (published in The Astronomical Journal)
Mass and Density of the Ultra-hot "Rocky" Planet TOI-561 b (published in The Astronomical Journal)
Jingwen Zhang (2019-2024), U. Hawaii, PhD
PhD Thesis: "Dynamical Architecture of Transiting Planets with Outer Companions and Fourier Transform Spectroscopy for Direct Imaged Exoplanets" (co-supervised by Profs. Dan Huber and Mike Bottom)
Discovery of a Jupiter Analog Misaligned to the Inner Planetary System in HD 73344 (submitted to The Astronomical Journal, link)
A Testbed for Tidal Migration: the 3D Architecture of an Eccentric Hot Jupiter HD 118203 b Accompanied by a Possibly Aligned Outer Giant Planet (accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal, link)
Dynamical Architectures of S-Type Binaries I: Target Selection using Gaia and Hipparcos Proper Motion Anomalies (published in The Astronomical Journal)
Long-period Jovian Tilts the Orbits of Two sub-Neptunes Relative to Stellar Spin Axis in Kepler-129 (published in The Astronomical Journal)
Jack Lubin (2020-2022), UC Irvine
TESS-Keck Survey V: Masses of Three Sub-Neptunes Orbiting HD 191939 and the Discovery of Two Outer Jovians (published in The Astronomical Journal)
Emma Turtelboom (2020-2022), UC Berkeley
TESS-Keck Survey XI: Mass diversity in four similarly sized sub-Neptunes (published in The Astronomical Journal)
Sarah Blunt (2018-2019) , Caltech
Radial Velocity Discovery of an Eccentric Jovian World Orbiting at 18 AU (published in The Astronomical Journal)
Undergraduate Students
Carlos Jurado (2023-), Notre Dame REU
Upper Limits on Companions to Kepler's Circumbinary Planets from a Decade of RVs
Matthew Doty (2023-), Notre Dame
Orbital Stability of High-Multiplicity Planetary Systems with Various Architectures
Aaron Householder (2022-2023), Notre Dame REU
Mass and radius diversity of the sub-Neptune sized planets in Kepler-105 revealed through RVs and TTVs, The Inconsistent Use of Angles in the RV Equation (manuscript available here)
Andrew Langford (2021-2023), Notre Dame
A Dynamical Systems Approach to the Theory of Circumbinary Orbits in the Circular Restricted Problem (published in The Astronomical Journal)
Thomas Vandal (2018), U. Montreal
Masses and Orbits of the Beta Pictoris Planets
Merrin Peterson (2017), U. Montreal
Upper limits on spectral features from water in 51 Pegasi b from archival Keck-HIRES spectra (summer project)
Laura Daclison (2018), Waipahu High School
Maunakea Scholars Program: Properties of the Kepler Circumbinary Systems from Keck Observations
Keck Planet Hunter Collaboration
My extended research group includes investigators from various universities who are using the W. M. Keck Observatory to discover and characterize exoplanets and their host stars with high-resolution spectroscopy. Group activities include frequent observing on Keck, observer training, data management, and of course, analysis of the planets and stars that are so dear to us!
Keck Planet Hunters, 2019
Back row, L to R: Howard Isaacson, Sean Mills, Lee Rosenthal, Erik Petigura, Andrew Howard, Dan Huber, BJ Fulton. Front row, L to R: Lauren Weiss, Lea Hirsch, Ryan Rubenzahl, Molly Kosiarek, Aida Behmard, Sam Grunblatt
Resources
Are you interested in joining our group? Check out our student-advisor research contract!