Avidaan Srivastava

Avidaan Srivastava started his PhD at Université de Montréal in September 2024 under the supervision of Professor René Doyon. His research focuses on detection and characterization of exoplanets using ground based high resolution spectrographs, primarily NIRPS and SPIRou. These instruments use the concept of Doppler Spectroscopy to get precise measurements of the radial velocity of an observed star, providing estimates on the mass of the companion (in this case, the planet). Transiting exoplanet candidates, observed via large scale surveys such as TESS, already have their radii determined therefore, by performing radial velocity follow-ups on these planets one can calculate their bulk densities and infer valuable information regarding the composition and structure.

In July 2024, Avidaan completed his M.Sc. at Observatoire de Genève working alongside Prof. François Bouchy and Prof. Xavier Dumusque. His master thesis work involved creating and implementing an automatic algorithm in the official NIRPS data reduction pipeline to correct for the night sky airglow in the near infrared wavelength regime caused by the Earth’s atmosphere, a necessary step for ground based instruments. He graduated with his B.S. from The Ohio State University in 2022.