Research
We study moons and planets through the gas, plasma and light they give off, and what that reveals about their interiors, surfaces, oceans and habitability: ocean worlds (Europa, Ganymede, Enceladus, Titan), volcanic worlds (Io, exo-Ios, lava planets), the search for exomoons, exoplanet atmospheres with JWST, and astrobiology. Our tools are models we develop (SERPENS, DISHOOM, PROMETHEUS) together with spacecraft, space telescopes and ground-based high-resolution spectroscopy.
Undergraduate Students
RG
Rishabh Garg
(Caltech)
AN
Alana Nisperos
(Caltech)
Graduate Students
MM
Moritz Meyer zu Westram
(University of Bern)
RC
Raghav Chari
(New York University)
PG
Pulkit Gupta
(KTH Stockholm, Indian Institute of Technology Indore)
YH
Yifan Hu
(Stanford University / University of Cambridge)
Postdocs Mentored
SC
Dr. Sihe Chen
(Caltech)
AU
Dr. Athira Unni
(UC Santa Cruz)
MN
Dr. Mayank Narang
(NASA JPL)
SM
Dr. Shane Carberry Mogan
(KTH Stockholm)
SR
Dr. S. R. Dhanush
(Indian Institute of Astrophysics)
RR
Dr. Rozenn Robidel
(ESA)
CM
Dr. Cyril Mergny
(ESA)
SV
Dr. Sébastien Verkercke
(LPP)
AT
Dr. Armen Tokadjian
(JPL)
CH
Dr. Caroline Haslebacher
(University of Bern / SwRI, CU Boulder)
JP
Dr. Jayshil Patel
(DTU)
Collaborators
AB
Dr. Aaron Bello-Arufe
(NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
AL
Dr. Adam Langeveld
(Arizona State University)
EK
Dr. Elina Kleisioti
(National Observatory of Athens)
EL
Emma Lovett
(Center for Space Physics, Boston University)
SB
Dr. Stuart Bartlett
(Caltech / SETI)
CS
Prof. Carl Schmidt
(Center for Space Physics, Boston University)
KH
Dr. Kaustubh Hakim
(Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven)
ST
Dr. Santiago Torres
(Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias)
JN
Prof. Joe Ninan
(Tata Institute of Fundamental Research)
AG
Prof. André Galli
(University of Bern)
EC
Dr. Emily Costello
(U Hawaii, HIGP)
ST
Prof. Sivarani Thirupathi
(Indian Institute of Astrophysics)
RH
Prof. Renyu Hu
(Rutgers University)
DD
Prof. David Dubois
(University of Caen Normandy)
Previous Students
AS
Arya Sorate
(IIT Kanpur)
Undergraduate thesis, Earth Sciences
CM
Cecilia Mancin
(Università d'Annunzio, Pescara)
JPL Intern · Master's 2026
JP
Jennifer Park
(UC Riverside)
SURF student
IB
Ishita Bhatnagar
(BITS Pilani)
M.Sc. Physics & B.E. Chemical Engineering (BITS Pilani)
LA
Lukas Affolter
(University of Bern)
M.Sc. (University of Bern)
now: PhD student at ETH Zurich
AG
Andrea Gebek
(University of Bern)
M.S. (ETH Zurich)
now: Postdoc at University of Bath
BC
Bjorn Cotting
(University of Bern)
Undergraduate thesis
Caltech Departments
Gurus
YY
In Memoriam · 1946 – 2026
Prof. Yuk Ling Yung (Caltech 1977-2026)
Professor of Planetary Science
Division of Geological & Planetary Sciences, Caltech
REJ
Prof. Emeritus Robert E. Johnson
Department of Materials Science & Engineering, University of Virginia & New York University
↗ Oza & Johnson 2019, ApJ
RL
FL
Dr. François Leblanc
Sorbonne Universités & LATMOS/IPSL
JL
Prof. Jonathan Lunine
Caltech & NASA JPL (Chief Scientist)
CM
Prof. Christoph Mordasini
University of Bern