Ekrem M. Esmer

Dr. Ekrem M. Esmer is a McDonnell Center Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Physics at Washington University in St. Louis. He is affiliated with the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences and the AstroMusers research group led by Dr. Tansu Daylan. His primary roles involve postdoctoral research in observational astronomy and astrophysics.

Education:

• PhD in Astrophysics, Ankara University
• MS in Physics, Ankara University
• BS in Physics, Ankara University

Research Interests: Ekrem focuses on exoplanets, stellar astrophysics, binary stars, and circumbinary planetary systems. His work emphasizes characterizing these systems and studying their dynamical stability. He actively contributes to missions such as NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, ULTRASAT, and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Additionally, he is involved in developing space-based telescope concepts like the AXIS mission and maintains NASA’s ExoCore curriculum for the exoplanet community.

Funding and Collaborations: His research is supported by NASA, LSST Discovery Alliance, the John Templeton Foundation, and the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences. He collaborates on projects using facilities like the Hubble Space Telescope, JWST, and various ground-based telescopes.

Labs/Teams: He is part of the AstroMusers group, which explores dark matter and planetary evolution. The group’s work includes leading Wide Field Science investigations for the Roman Space Telescope and developing pipelines for ULTRASAT.