Denise Stephens - Associate Professor, BYU Physics and Astronomy

"Dr. Stephen's received her bachelors degree from BYU and her masters and PhD from New Mexico State University and then went on to work at the Space Telescope Science Institute and Johns Hopkins University before coming to BYU in 2007.  Her research focuses on the study of brown dwarf atmospheres, objects that form like  star but do not have enough mass to sustain hydrogen fusion.  Her research group combines near- and mid-infrared photometry and spectroscopy with theoretical models to probe the depth of cloud layers as a function of wavelength and to examine how vertical mixing is driving key molecular species out of equilibrium. This work has direct application to understanding the atmospheres of directly imaged planets and interpreting the transmission spectra of exoplanets to determine the composition of their atmospheres.  For fun, Dr. Stephens and a group of her students also use small telescopes to assist the TESS mission in the identification of stars with possible transiting planets."