Aneesh Baburaj

I am a postdoctoral Scholar working with Dr. Jason Wang at Northwestern University. My research interests focus on direct spectroscopy of giant planets and brown dwarf-mass companions using high-contrast techniques with JWST/NIRSpec, aiming to infer their atmospheric physics and chemistry, while providing insights into their formation. I am also the leading developer of the spectroscopy pipeline for the Roman Space Telescope. In the past, I have worked on detailed abundance characterization of fast-rotating host stars (rotation velocities > 10 km/s), subsequently comparing them to abundances of the planets. This allows us to accurately benchmark the planetary abundances, and precisely constrain their formation locations and accretion histories.

Research

Exoplanet characterization
Stellar characterization
Population studies

Selected Presentations

First Direct Spectroscopy of GJ 504 b Reveals Clouds and Possible Metal Enrichment: Contributed Talk at the Exoplanet Atmospheres conference, Denver, CO, USA (March 2026)
Directly imaged host star abundances as tracers for planet formation and occurrence: Contributed Talk at the Know Thy Star, Know Thy Planet 2 conference, Pasadena, CA, USA (February 2025)
Two Halves of a Whole: Constraining Planet Formation via High-Resolution Spectroscopy of Host Stars and their Companions: Dissertation Talk at the 245th AAS Meeting, National Harbor, MD, USA (January 2025)
Leveraging host star abundance ratios to constrain directly imaged planet formation and structure : Poster at the Cool Stars 22 conference, San Diego, CA, USA (June 2024)
Constraining Directly Imaged Planet Formation using High Resolution Spectroscopy of Host Stars: Contributed Talk at the STScI Spring Symposium, Baltimore, MD, USA (May 2023)

Mentoring and Outreach

I have participated in several mentoring and outreach activities during my time at UCSD. Click on the link to learn more!

Exoplanet characterization

Stellar characterization

Population studies