معرفی
Björn Benneke is a Professor at Université de Montréal and an Associate Professor of Planetary Astronomy at UCLA's Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Science. He leads research in exoplanet characterization using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and other advanced observational facilities. At UCLA, he serves on the Faculty Executive Committee of the College of Letters & Sciences overseeing academic matters for 50 departments with over 27,000 students, and acts as Graduate Program Advisor for the EPSS department. At Université de Montréal, he heads the astronomy division within the Department of Physics, consisting of 11 professors and approximately 100 researchers.
His research focuses on:
- Exploring the prevalence and nature of "water worlds" in the Universe
- Probing the diversity of atmospheres on rocky planets for Earth-like climates, volcanism, and biosignatures
- Understanding physical and chemical processes governing planetary atmospheres
- Measuring elemental compositions of gaseous planets to understand formation and evolution
Professor Benneke leads the largest survey program with NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to investigate water-world exoplanets. His work utilizes both space-based (JWST, Hubble) and ground-based (Keck) telescopes to characterize exoplanet atmospheres across a wide spectrum of planetary types, from hot Jupiters to potentially habitable worlds. His research has been featured in major media outlets including DER SPIEGEL, National Geographic, NASA, Fox News, and CBC/Radio-Canada.
His scientific achievements include:
- Over 140 peer-reviewed publications
- 15 articles in Nature
- 7 articles in Nature Astronomy
- 1 article in Science
- Over 20 articles in ApJL
- Over 13,000 total citations (nearly 10,000 in the past 5 years)
Professor Benneke serves on the Science Advisory Councils of STScI's JWST Rocky Worlds DDT program and the Thirty Meter Telescope construction project. He is also involved with instrument development teams for Keck/HISPEC and TMT/MODHIS. He supervises numerous graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and undergraduate researchers working across institutions in Canada and the United States.
