Brandon CoyGraduate Student

Research Focus:

Exoplanet atmospheres, habitability, biosignatures

Email:

bpcoy@uchicago.edu

Office:

Hinds 459

Biography

I earned a B.A. in astrophysics from UC Berkeley in 2019 and a M.S. from UChicago in 2022.  I worked at several NASA centers in between my undergraduate and graduate careers to gain more experience in research.  Outside of school, I am very interested in dance!

Research Interests

My interests lie in combining astronomy and planetary science to see what we can learn about a planet from observations, as well as what we can infer from models.  I am very excited by early results from the James Webb Space Telescope and what they can tell us about the surfaces and atmospheres of small exoplanets.  I am particularly interested in how we can detect signs of life (biosignatures), especially with the upcoming Habitable Worlds Observatory.  I am also interested in what geological processes are important in keeping a planet habitable, including the carbonate-silicate weathering cycle.

Selected Publications

Brandon Park Coy, Conor A. Nixon, Naomi Rowe-Gurney, Richard Achterberg, Nicholas A. Lombardo, Leigh N. Fletcher, Patrick Irwin,  

Spitzer IRS Observations of Titan as a Precursor to JWST MIRI Observations