Paul Sykes Lecture - Dr. Michelle Kunimoto, PhD

Join us for our yearly Paul Sykes Lecture on Thursday, June 12, 2025! Please ensure that you get a free ticket at the link below as seating is limited.

Free tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2025-paul-sykes-memorial-lecture-dr-michelle-kunimoto-tickets-1364735062309

Location: SFU Burnaby Mountain Campus, room TBD

Topic: How I Found 3000 New Exoplanets

Speaker: Dr. Michelle Kunimoto

Bio: Michelle Kunimoto is an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UBC, where she also obtained her PhD. She was previously a postdoctoral fellow at MIT where she worked on NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. Dr. Kunimoto is an expert on discovering and characterizing strange new worlds outside of the Solar System, known as exoplanets. She aims to understand the demographics and diversity of exoplanets, especially those that are potentially habitable and Earth-like. Across all of her planet-hunting endeavours, Dr. Kunimoto has found over 3400 planets and planet candidates.

Abstract: From the early days of exoplanet discovery to the revolutionary understanding of thousands of planets today, the field of exoplanet science has evolved at an astonishing pace. In this talk, I will share my experience searching for potentially habitable planets with NASA's Kepler mission and discovering thousands of planets with NASA's TESS mission, highlighting the challenges and thrills of analyzing massive datasets to find new worlds. As the field has progressed, the focus has shifted to understanding the atmospheres of exoplanets and rethinking what makes a planet habitable. Exoplanet science provides the opportunity to start answering the age-old question: Are we alone?

About our Events:

All RASC lectures and observing events are open to the public, family friendly, and there is no charge for admission. Our organization is run entirely by volunteers who love astronomy and astrophysics. Whether you're a complete beginner, a seasoned astronomer, or you hope to work for NASA some day, anyone fascinated by space exploration is welcome and will enjoy our events