Research Scientists & Project Scientists

Full-time UC San Diego Research Scientists and Project Scientist that conduct independent research programs while collaborating with faculty, researchers, and graduate students. Research Scientists and Project Scientists actively participate in mentoring students and perform Astronomy service.

Andrew Buffington
Dr. Andrew Buffington works on solar system studies, on time series studies of more distant objects, and on development of new imaging instrumentation.
Bernard Jackson
Dr. Bernie Jackson specializes in solar astrophysics and space-based instrument programs, and is principal investigator of solar instrumenation lab at UC San Diego.
Chad Kishimoto
Dr. Chad Kishimoto explores the effects of the weak interaction in the early universe.
Alex Kritsuk
Dr. Alexei Kritsuk specializes in theoretical and computational astrophysics with primary applications to interstellar turbulence, star formation, and cosmic microwave background data analysis.
Lee Lindblom
Dr. Lee Lindblom studies problems in mathematical astrophysics where strong gravitational fields play an important role, such as neutron stars, gravitational waves, and cosmology.
Jerome Maire
Dr. Jerome Maire’s work focuses on developing instrumentation to search for astrophysical transients and high-contrast imaging techniques to discover and characterize extrasolar planets.
Mikhail Malkov
Dr. Mikhail Malkov studies cosmic ray accretion and propagation through the interstellar medium.
Carl Melis
Dr. Carl Melis is a stellar astrophysicist and his studies include the birth, life, death, and re-birth of stars and their planetary systems.
Serena Perrotta
Dr. Serena Perrotta is an observational astronomer, and her research interests include galaxy evolution and feedback from stars and supermassive black holes.
Jarred Roberts
Dr. Jarred Roberts is interested in high-energy physics instrumentation development for experiments like the Compton Spectrometer and Imager Explorer (COSI-X) and the General Antiparticle Spectrometer (GAPS).
Jean-Baptiste Ruffio
Dr. Jean-Baptiste Ruffio is interested in extrasolar planets, high contrast imaging, and advanced image processing and statistical analysis techniques.
Richard Rothschild
Dr. Rick Rothschild studies X-ray and gamma ray emission from neutron stars and black holes of all sizes, in order to understand the physical processes involved in accretion onto them.
Grant Teply
Dr. Grant Teply is an observational cosmologist interested in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) in collaboration with the Simons Array, Simons Observatory, and CMB-S4 telescopes.