We are pleased to welcome Nick Tusay, who joined the team this September as a DiRAC Postdoctoral Fellow. Nick focuses on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) and habitable worlds research. His SETI work has been executing and analyzing the results of novel search strategies to look for radio technosignatures using observatories like the Green Bank Telescope and the Allen Telescope Array. His work on exoplanets has largely been focused on directly measuring the chemical components of disintegrating rocky bodies around main sequence stars to test our understanding of planet composition using both state-of-the-art ground-based optical observatories as well as space-based observatories like JWST. 

Nick is excited to be co-PI on a JWST Cycle 4 Program to observe a recently discovered disintegrating exoplanet, BD+05 4868 Ab, executing this October. Using transmission spectroscopy in mid-infrared, his team will measure the spectrum of the dusty effluents coming off the planet and try to match that with features of known materials. It’s an exciting and rare opportunity to examine the interior composition of a rocky exoplanet around a main sequence star.