Transiting planets on 20+ day orbits around solar-type stars are idea for constraining different models of planet formaiton. Their atmospheres contain molecules found in both colder and hotter planets, enabling a direct comparison between Solar system planets and hot Jupiters and Neptunes. I use HARPS-N and other telescope faclilities to do measure the masses of these warm and temperate trasting planets, studying their bulk composition, and setting the stage for future atmospheric studies.
Every star is active, and some more than others. I'm interested in understanding stellar activity signals at all levels and investigate ways to measure and mitigate them in radial velocity and photometric data. In particular I am inetrested in:
better understanding the physical interpretation of Gaussian process regression hyperparameters, and how this can help us understand stars better and improve exoplanet detections
finding planets around pathalogically active, young stars, where the activity signals can down out or mimic planetary signals
Where would astronomers be without their telescopes and instruments? I enjoy all technical aspects of precision spectroscopy and spectropolarimetry, even if it means crawling on the floor under an optics table to test fibre connectors.