Ryan Petersburg

Ryan Petersburg's picture
Senior Professional Staff 1
Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
203-436-8109
Research Areas: 
Astrophysics
Biographical Sketch: 

Honors & Awards

2017 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

Education: 
Ph.D. 2021, Yale University
Advisor: 
Debra Fischer
Dissertation Title: 
Exoplanet Measurement to the Extreme: Novel Methods of Instrumentation and Data Extraction for Radial-velocity Spectrographs
Dissertation Abstract: 

The current generation of radial-velocity spectrographs are at the precipice of discovering a multitude Earth-like exoplanets orbiting in the habitable zones of nearby stars. Such detections require Doppler precision of approximately 10 cm s^{-1), an order of magnitude better than the typical best-case measurement from the previous generation of instruments. Therefore, the radial-velocity community requires research and innovation from all angles to push our technology over the brink. This thesis present multiple contributions to this field—ranging from the development of precision laser equipment to the implementation of advanced statistical data analysis algorithms—all in support of the EXtreme PREcision Spectrograph with the goal of improving instrument precision and exoplanet detection capability.