Clarissa do O

B. Thomas Soifer Postdoctoral Scholar Research Associate in Astronomy

Hi! My name is Clarissa Do Ó and I am an incoming B. Thomas Soifer (EXP) Postdoctoral Fellow at the California Institute of Technology (starting in September 2025), working with Prof. Dimitri Mawet on the direct imaging of exoplanets. I recently received my Ph.D. in Physics from UC San Diego, where I worked with Prof. Quinn Konopacky on the Gemini Planet Imager's (GPI) pyramid wavefront sensor upgrade and on studying the orbit fitting and dynamics of directly imaged exoplanet systems under the National Science Foundation and San Diego Fellowships. I earned my B.S. in Physics at UC Santa Barbara with a minor in Astronomy and Planetary Science. At UCSB, I worked with Prof. Ben Mazin on the MKID Exoplanet Camera (MEC) data reduction pipeline. My research interest is in understanding the formation and evolution of exoplanet orbital architectures, in particular of those detected with direct imaging. In order to understand planetary systems' formation and evolution processes, I employ a variety of methods, such as using observational data from telescopes to characterize imaged planets' orbits and atmospheres, simulating the dynamical evolution of forming planets using, and upgrading instruments that will allow for the imaging of fainter and closer-in exoplanets (to see my specific projects, please go to my Research tab).

Profile:

https://clarissardoo.github.io/