Dr. Andrew Vanderburg

Assistant Professor

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Biography

Andrew Vanderburg is an assistant professor in astronomy at Harvard University, where his research focuses on studying exoplanets, specifically those orbiting stars beyond our solar system. He is interested in developing cutting-edge techniques and methodologies to discover new planets and investigate their properties. His work aims to answer fundamental questions about the nature of these distant worlds, including whether they resemble the planets in our Solar System and if they could potentially support life as we know it. Prior to his current role, he served as an assistant professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was also a NASA Sagan Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin. Vanderburg earned his Ph.D. from Harvard in 2017, where he developed methods to eliminate systematic noise from data collected by NASA's K2 mission, and made this dataset publicly available. Furthermore, he created an online tutorial to help astronomers utilize data from telescopes such as Kepler and TESS to study exoplanets.

Research Interests

Experience

Assistant Professor

2021-01-01 — Present

Harvard University • Cambridge, MA

Research focuses on studying exoplanets and developing new techniques for discovering and analyzing planetary systems.

Assistant Professor

2020-01-01 — 2021-12-31

Massachusetts Institute of Technology • Cambridge, MA

Conducted research in physics with an emphasis on astronomical applications.

NASA Sagan Postdoctoral Fellow

2017-01-01 — 2020-12-31

University of Texas at Austin • Austin, TX

Focused on exoplanet research and data analysis from NASA's K2 mission.

Requirements for Harvard University

Doctorate Program
Requirements
TOEFL
Total
Required:80
IELTS
Overall
Required:6.5
Prerequisites
Bachelor's degree in a technical or quantitative field
Application Checklist
  • Online application
  • Statement of Purpose
  • Transcripts
  • Letters of recommendation
  • Resume/CV
Specialization Notes

Administered by the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS).