Faculty & Research Fellows

Principal Investigators

Our researchers lead multi-national observational programs across the James Webb Space Telescope, Event Horizon Telescope, and the Europa Clipper Science Team.

Dr. Eleanor Vance, Ph.D.

Director of Observational Cosmology

Early Universe & High-Redshift Galaxies

Lead Investigator on high-redshift galaxy formation surveys with NIRSpec. Recipient of the Breakthrough New Horizons in Physics Prize for confirming galaxy formation within 300 Myr of the Big Bang.

Research Highlight: Discovered JADES-GS-z14-0 (Redshift z = 14.32)

Published Treatises: 118+

Prof. Marcus Thorne, D.Sc.

Chair of Theoretical Astrophysics

General Relativity & Black Hole Thermodynamics

Theoretical physicist specializing in Kerr black hole photon ring analytics, spacetime singularities, and quantum information holographic bounds.

Research Highlight: Formulated the higher-order photon ring interferometric scaling theorems

Published Treatises: 164+

Dr. Maya Lin, Ph.D.

Principal Astrobiologist

Ocean Worlds & Prebiotic Chemistry

Geochemist investigating hydrothermal vent energetic kinetics on Enceladus, Europa, and Titan. Co-investigator on the Europa Clipper MASPEX spectrometer.

Research Highlight: Published the quantification of dissolved phosphorus ions in Enceladus's cryovolcanic plume

Published Treatises: 82+

Dr. Alistair Chen, Ph.D.

Head of Exoplanetary Science

Atmospheric Transmission Spectroscopy

Specialist in atmospheric retrieval algorithms and photochemistry of sub-Neptunes and terrestrial exoplanets orbiting M-dwarf host stars.

Research Highlight: Co-discovered sulfur dioxide photochemistry in WASP-39b atmosphere

Published Treatises: 94+