Ben Montet

I am interested in problems related to detecting and characterising planets around nearby stars as well as understanding the evolution of stellar magnetic activity, such as starspots and flares, on these stars. I use data from space-based facilities like NASA's Kepler and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) missions, as well as ground-based facilities in Australia and abroad. To answer these questions, I am interested in applying machine learning techniques and other statistical methods to the large data sets that are available and those that will become available in the coming years. I joined the UNSW School of Physics in October, 2019, where I lead the NEarby Worlds and Their Stars (NEWTS) research group. I am looking to work with students at all career stages, and am happy to discuss current projects and future plans with students interested in pursuing research in exoplanets or stellar astrophysics. If you are interested in joining our group as an undergraduate researcher, Honours student, or PhD student please send an email describing your research experience and attaching your CV and transcript. You can read more about my research and interests on my website. I study nearby stars and their planetary systems. We know of thousands of exoplanets in the Milky Way, largely discovered with data from the NASA Kepler mission. I use that facility, the NASA TESS mission, and ground-based spectrographs in Australia, the USA, and Chile to find and characterise newly-discovered planets. I also work to understand the stellar activity of the planet host stars and how that might affect habitability. I'm also interested in developing machine learning approaches to maximise our ability to find small signals in these noisy, incomplete data sets. We also study planets around binary stars, and the dynamics of planetary systems.