Benjamin Mazin

Professor Benjamin Mazin leads the Mazin Lab at the University of California Santa Barbara, focusing on developing Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs) for astrophysical applications. He graduated from Yale (1997) and earned his Ph.D. in Astrophysics from Caltech (2004), joining UCSB faculty in 2008 after postdoc and JPL roles.

• Education
• Yale University (1997)
• California Institute of Technology (2004, Ph.D. in Astrophysics)

His lab specializes in:

• Optical/UV/X-ray and Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs)
• High-contrast imaging of exoplanets
• Time-domain astrophysics and dark matter detection

Recent developments include NSF-funded MEC instrument upgrades and NASA-supported MKID projects. His lab has deployed instruments like DARKNESS at Palomar and MEC at Subaru, with students like Aled Cuda and Crystal Kim receiving prestigious NSF/NSTGRO fellowships.

Key Awards:

• Presidential Early Career Award (PECASE) 2010
• Worster Chair in Experimental Physics (2017-2022)

Notable alumni include Alex Walter (JPL NASA NPP Fellow), Paul Szypryt (NRC Postdoc at NIST), and Jenny Smith (NASA Fellow). The lab maintains state-of-the-art cryogenic facilities, including dilution refrigerators and microwave readout systems.