Nikku Madhusudhan, Professor of Astrophysics and Exoplanetary Science at the Institute of Astronomy, is one of five researchers at the University of Cambridge who have won consolidator grants this year from the European Research Council (ERC), Europe’s premiere funding organisation for frontier research.
Prof. Madhusudhan's research focuses on understanding the atmospheres, interiors, formation conditions and habitability of exoplanets, using a combination of theoretical work, observations, and inverse techniques. He is widely known for pioneering the inverse techniques used to retrieve atmospheric properties of exoplanets from spectroscopic observations and various theoretical developments in the field.
Prof. Madhusudhan's ERC project aims to advance the understanding of the sub-Neptune regime which is a new frontier in exoplanetary science. Sub-Neptunes, with sizes between those of Earth and Neptune, dominate the exoplanet population but have no analogue in the solar system, thereby opening a wide range of important questions on planetary processes.
Prof. Madhusudhan's team will investigate central questions on the chemical diversity, origins, and atmospheric processes of sub-Neptunes using new theoretical modelling and inverse methods and observational advancements with large facilities in space and on ground, including the James Webb Space Telescope.
Adapted from an article published by the Institue of Astronomy here.