Max Millar-blanchaer
Assistant Professor at UC Santa Barbara
Goleta, California, United States
Summary
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Senior🎓
Top SchoolMax Millar-Blanchaer is an Assistant Professor at UC Santa Barbara with 13 years of experience at the intersection of astronomical instrumentation, observational exoplanet science, and data analysis. His research specializes in optics and polarimetry for directly imaged exoplanets, combining hands-on engineering with advanced data-science techniques to probe extrasolar atmospheres and circumstellar environments. He held prestigious fellowships at Caltech and NASA JPL, where he developed instrumentation and analysis methods used in high-contrast imaging. Trained with a PhD in Astronomy & Astrophysics from the University of Toronto and dual undergraduate degrees in Physics and Electrical Engineering, he brings rare breadth across hardware and software. Based in Goleta, CA, he is known for translating complex optical design challenges into practical observational pipelines. Beyond academia, he blends experimental rigor with creative problem solving, enabling new polarimetric capabilities for characterizing nearby planetary systems.
13 years of coding experience
Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Astronomy and Astrophysics at University of TorontoBachelor of Science - BS, Physics, Bachelor of Science - BS, Physics at Queen's University
Github Skills (22)
reduction10
astronomy10
ifs10
planet10
idl10
pipeline8
gemini8
simulation8
diffraction6
python6
imaging6
testing3
carbon-emissions3
synthetic2
statistics2
Programming languages (5)
Github contributions (5)
roman-corgi/corgisim
Jul 2024 - Jun 2026
A simulator for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Coronagraphic Instrument
Contributions:111 reviews, 34 PRs, 55 pushes in 1 year 10 months
planetarysystemsimager/psisim
May 2019 - Apr 2022
Simulates observations of exoplanets
Contributions:79 commits, 5 PRs, 56 pushes in 2 years 11 months
pythonsimulationexoplanetsobservations
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