Team Dynamos Members

Laura Amaral, ASU Postdoctoral Researcher

I work with how stellar activity impacts the atmospheres of (exo)planets, especially the ones around M stars. I have a particular interest in how this star-planet connection impacts the habitability potential of a planet. My part of the work in the team is to apply stellar observational data to run numerical modeling of planetary atmospheres and connect it to astrobiology.

Tahina Ramiaramanantsoa, ASU Research Associate

I specialize in the intrinsic variability of massive stars and, more recently, those in the low-mass regime, as well as the development of software for space-based astrophysics observatories.

Nuri Park, ASU Graduate Student

The fundamental question I seek to answer throughout my Ph.D. program is, “What makes planets habitable?” With Team Dynamo, I am focusing on characterizing solar activities that can serve as a guide in determining the habitability of exoplanets.

James Jackman, ASU Postdoctoral Scholar

I work on characterising the magnetic activity of low-mass stars through multi-wavelength observations, with a focus on testing the accuracy of flare models used to determine the habitability of the planets these stars host.

Tyler Richey-Yowell, past ASU graduate student, now Lowell Postdoctoral Fellow at Lowell Observatory

My current work is on the evolution of stellar activity, looking to find the type of stars most suitable to host life. I am also part of a team to determine asteroseismic targets for the upcoming TESS mission. Previously, I focused on close binary star systems, mostly W UMa-types, and explored the evolutionary track of these types of pairs.

Adam Schneider, past ASU Postdoctoral Scholar, now Staff Astronomer at USNO-Flagstaff

I am an observational astronomer who uses both ground- and space-based observatories to study the formation and evolution of extrasolar planets, brown dwarfs, and low-mass stars.

Wilson Cauley, past ASU Postdoctoral Scholar, now Postdoctoral Scholar at CU Boulder

I focus on transmission spectroscopy of hot planets and how these objects interact with their host stars.

Melodie Kao, past ASU Postdoctoral Scholar and Hubble Fellow, now 51 Peg b Fellow at UCSC

I am a postdoctoral researcher at the School for Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University. I am characterizing the magnetic fields of ultra-cool brown dwarf stars in an effort to understand the magnetic dynamo mechanisms operating in the mass regime that bridges planets and stars.

Parke Loyd, past ASU Postdoctoral Scholar, now Researcher at Eureka Scientific, Inc.

I specialize in ultraviolet observations made with the Hubble Space Telescope. My work currently focuses on observations of the ultraviolet light emitted from small stars, and in particular flares of that emission. Small stars harbor most of the planets in the universe, and their ultraviolet emission could be a determining factor in the evolution and present chemical state of the atmospheres of orbiting planets. I am also interested in the physics of atmospheric escape, stellar coronal mass ejections, planet-finding, and statistics. 

Ella Osby,  past ASU undergraduate student

Joe Llama, past Lowell Postdoctoral Scholar, now Astronomer at Lowell Observatory

Research Interests: Star-planet interactions, transiting exoplanets, stellar and planetary magnetism

Brittany Miles, past Lowell Observatory REU student, now 51 Peg b Fellow at University of Arizona

Laura Flagg, past Lowell/NAU graduate student, now Postdoctoral Scholar at Cornell University

Research Interests: Low-mass stars, stellar spectroscopy, stellar binarity                            

Saul Kohn, past Lowell REU student, now graduate student at University of Pennsylvania

Research interests:  Young stars, transition disks, stellar spectroscopy, radio astronomy

Kristina Rolph, past Lowell REU student, now undergraduate Student at Franklin and Marshall College

Ben Kidder, past Lowell REU student, now Graduate Student at University of Texas at Austin