Millar-Blanchaer
Research Group
University of California, Santa Barbara
MEET THE GROUP~/group
The UCSB Exoplanet Polarimetry Lab: postdocs, graduate students and undergraduates working on instrumentation, observations and data analysis. Interested in joining? E-mail me. RECRUITING NEW GRADS
CURRENT GROUP MEMBERS
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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.
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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
Undergraduate 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.
Ivan Bijamov
Undergraduate Student
Ivan is an undergraduate at Connecticut College interested in debris disks, high-contrast imaging, and exoplanet detection. He is currently modeling JWST/NIRCam observations of the HD 30447 debris disk to characterize its morphology and search for planetary companions.
GROUP ALUMNI~/group/alumni
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Jaren N. Ashcraft (He/They)
Former 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.
Now: Optical Engineer III, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Andy Zhou
Former Undergraduate Student
Andy’s research focuses on high-contrast imaging. His current work is on focal-plane wavefront sensing, developing regularized Speckle Area Nulling (SAN) method to suppress quasi-static speckles that can mimic planets.
Now: Graduate Student, James C. Wyant College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona
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Jack Grossman
Former Undergraduate Student
Jack worked on high-contrast imaging techniques and data analysis.
Now: Graduate Student at Michigan Tech
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William Chang
Former Undergraduate Student
William's research focused on polarimetry and instrumentation development.
Now: Graduate Student at Yale
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Ivan Abreu
Former REU Student
Ivan worked on exoplanet detection and characterization.
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Kyle Lam
Former Undergraduate Student
Kyle's research focused on brown dwarf atmospheres and polarimetry.
(YET)
Sofia Hillman
Former Undergraduate Student
Sofia is working on characterizing optics for a new polarimetry mode at the Keck II telescope.
Now: Graduate Student at University of Arizona
Will Melby
Former UCSB Undergraduate Student
Will is a physics undergraduate interested in exoplanets and instrumentation. His research focuses on characterizing optics for a new polarimetry mode at the Keck II telescope.
Now: Graduate Student at University of Arizona
Maya (Ye) Ma
Undergraduate Student
Maya is a sophomore physics and computer science dual major. She is currently working on developing metasurface for direct imaging, focusing on fabrication at the UCSB Nanofab and optimizing the design of metasurface.
Yunxuan (Lucy) Jiang
Former UCSB Undergraduate Student
Yunxuan is a senior data science major. Her work is dedicated to the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) data pipeline extraction, with a special focus on optimizing the efficiency and accuracy of ePSF model extraction. She is interested in data modeling and optimization within the realms of astronomy and finance.