Tiffany Meshkat

Tiffany Meshkat is an Associate Scientist at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) at Caltech. She specializes in directly imaging and characterizing extrasolar planets, particularly those in wide orbits around young stars. Her current roles include supporting NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and the Euclid NASA Science Center. Meshkat holds a Ph.D. from Leiden University (Netherlands), followed by a postdoc at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). She took a three-year career break (2021–2024) for family reasons but returned to astronomy to continue her research. Her work emphasizes exoplanet detection via advanced instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and develops methods for analyzing high-contrast imaging data. Meshkat is deeply involved in community engagement, ensuring astronomers and the public understand how to utilize future space observatories.

Education: B.Sc. in Astrophysics (UCLA), Ph.D. (Leiden University). Key research areas include planet formation in debris disk systems and the development of imaging pipelines. She has contributed to discoveries such as HD 106906 b and led projects like the Young Suns Exoplanet Survey.