Dr Aaron Rizzuto

Hello!
I'm an astronomer and I love studying how young stars and planets evolve on their journey to adulthood. I'm super excited about coming up with novel ways of looking at large datasets to enable new science.
​
I am currently a 51 Pegasi b prize postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin.
​
Check out the recent press release of our discovery of the youngest confirmed hot Jupiter!
​

My Experience
51 Pegasi b Fellow
Prize postdoctoral fellowship in exoplanet sceince funded by the Heising-Simons Foundation. My project aims to map the young (<1 Gyr old) exoplanet populations using K2 and TESS. I am also using the kinematics of young stars clusters to measure stellar density and cluster structure during the epoch of planet birth. I developed a methodology that improves transit detection around active young stars.
Postdoc in Star Formation
October 2014 -- June 2018
UT Austin
As a postdoc working with Prof. Adam Kraus at UT Austin, I lead programs to measure dynamical masses of young binary stars with Keck NIRC2 Non-Redundant Aperture Mask (NRM) interferometry and to test models of pre-main sequence evolution.
Education
Macqaurie University
Ph.D in Astronomy and Astrophysics
​
2011-2015
​
Thesis: Characterising the Young Sco Cen Association
The University of Sydney
Bachelor or Science Adv. (Physics and Mathematics)
​
Honours in Physics
​
2007-2010
Contact Me
University of Texas at Austin
Department of Astronomy
2515 Speedway, Stop C1400
Austin TX, 78712-1205
​