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Joey Rodriguez's research group focuses on understanding how planets form and evolve, specifically studying exoplanets and planets that orbit stars other than the Sun. Utilizing observations from NASA’s Kepler, K2, and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) missions, combined with ground-based photometry and spectroscopy, he works to discover and characterize new keystone exoplanet systems, addressing specific questions about planetary formation and evolution. His interests include eclipsing disk systems, where young stars are eclipsed by their own circumstellar disks. These rare events allow for direct investigation of the dust and gas that are the building blocks of planets. By combining millimeter mapping from ALMA, his research aims to provide a complete picture of the full system architecture. Rodriguez earned his B.S. in Astrophysics and Psychology from Rutgers University in 2010, followed by an M.S. in Applied Engineering Physics from George Mason University in 2012. He received his Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in 2016, focusing on transiting exoplanets and eclipsing disks to understand planet formation and evolution. Before arriving at Michigan State University in January 2021, he was a Future Faculty Leaders Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University from 2016 to 2019 and an Astronomer at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory from 2019 to 2020, working with the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian.
Department of Psychology