Mahesh Herath

Mahesh is a 2nd year PhD student at McGill University under the supervision of Prof. Nicolas Cowan. Mahesh’s research is concentrated on the interiors and thermal evolution of rocky Exoplanets. This research includes the creation of interior structure models for terrestrial planets by varying parameters such as the Core Mass Fraction, chemical composition, volatile content and the average density. One of the aims of this research is to reduce the degeneracy that can be seen among different interior structure models when being used to characterize rocky Exoplanets. Additionally Mahesh uses these models to study the thermal evolution of rocky planets with different structures, and to investigate whether they have the ability to have sustained geomagnetic field. At present he is involved in the simulation and study of lava planets, particularly their cooling timescales and how deep their magma oceans can be depending on factors such as planet mass.

Mahesh got his undergraduate degree in Physics from the University of Southampton in the UK and his master’s from KU Leuven in Belgium. He also worked for 4 years in the space division of the Arthur C Clark Institute in Sri Lanka. When not doing any space work or coding his mind away in Python, Mahesh plays badminton, goes Bouldering and exploring the city of Montreal without a map.

Supervisor

Nicolas Cowan