Mahesh Herath

Mahesh is a 1st year PhD student at McGill. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Physics from the University of Southampton in the UK, and a master’s in Space Science from KU Leuven in Belgium. He spent the last six years working in Sri Lanka at the Arthur C Clark Institute and with the University of Colombo. From 2015 to 2017 he did his research in high energy Astronomy, before shifting focus towards exoplanet research.

Most of his exoplanet work concentrated on the discovery and characterization of new exoplanets and on the study of the interiors of exoplanets and Solar System planets. Mahesh is particularly interested in the study of rocky exoplanets and the terrestrial planets of the Solar System, especially on how processes in planetary interiors can manifest observational signatures on their exteriors. His previous work has involved the discovery and characterization of the K2-310 system, a study of the interiors of the planets Proxima Centauri b and Ross-128 b and an investigation into the magnetic field generating capabilities of Super-Earth’s. Most of his work is conducted using Python programming through the construction of numerical algorithms and pipelines.

Supervisor

Nicolas Cowan