Current Group Members
Rebecca Zhang
Graduate Student
Rebecca's research focuses on characterizing the instrumental polarization of SCExAO VAMPIRES and developing new polarimetry techniques for exoplanet characterization.
Ronald Lopez
NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow
Ronald is interested in astronomical instrumentation and the discovery and characterization of directly imaged exoplanets. He is currently working on the commissioning plan for the updated polarimetry mode on the upcoming GPI 2.0 instrument and developing an MKID high-resolution multi-object spectrograph testbed for exoplanet characterization. He is also passionate about taking steps towards a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment in physics and astronomy.
Briley Lewis
NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow
Briley is interested in high-contrast + polarimetric instrumentation/data processing and observations of debris disks. She is currently working on commissioning the NIRC2 polarimetry mode and completing a uniform analysis of the Gemini Planet Imager debris disk sample using GPU-enabled modeling. She is also passionate about teaching, science writing, and accessibility in astronomy.
Ryan Hersey
Graduate Student
Ryan is a 2nd year graduate student interested in developing metasurface optics for high contrast imaging.
Jaren N. Ashcraft (He/They)
NASA Hubble Fellow
Jaren conducts research at the intersection of optical instrumentation and direct exoplanet detection. Jaren has lead efforts to characterize NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory's polarization aberrations, advance calibration of Mueller polarimeters, and design coronagraph masks for space-based ultraviolet exoplanet characterization.
Eric Shen
Undergraduate Student
Eric is a third year undergraduate student currently working on developing simulations and the data reduction pipeline for the Roman Coronagraph instrument. More broadly, he is interested in instrumentation for astronomy and high-contrast imaging.
Thomas McIntosh
Undergraduate Student
Thomas is a sophomore physics major interested in high contrast imaging instrumentation and observation. He is currently working on a Mueller matrix model for the Subaru/SCExAO/CHARIS spectropolarimetric mode that characterizes how the optical path polarizes incoming starlight and an accompanying open source Mueller matrix modeling package.
Sarah Choi
Undergradauate Student
Sarah is a CCS Physics student at UCSB interested in images, optics, and exoplanets. She is currently working on a visible-light polarimeter that will help understand how devices change one polarization state into another.
