Dr Anjali A.A. Piette MSci, PhD, FRAS

Dr Anjali A. A. Piette

School of Physics and Astronomy
Assistant Professor in Astronomy

Contact details

Email
a.a.a.piette@bham.ac.uk
Address
Physics West
ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Anjali is an Assistant Professor in Astronomy. Her research aims to uncover the diversity of planetary physics among the exoplanet population. Thousands of exoplanets have been discovered in the past three decades, encompassing a staggering range of conditions - from lava worlds to temperate mini-Neptunes and hot, giant planets. Anjali uncovers new insights into these distant worlds by using their atmospheres as windows into their climates, compositions and formation mechanisms. She places empirical constraints on these planets using theoretical models and atmospheric observations from telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope.

Please see for more information.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Astronomy, University of Cambridge, 2021
  • MSci in Natural Sciences (Astrophysics), University of Cambridge, 2017
  • BA in Natural Sciences, University of Cambridge, 2016

Biography

Anjali pursued her undergraduate studies in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, ultimately specialising in Astrophysics. She continued her studies at the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, obtaining her PhD in 2021. During her PhD, Anjali studied the atmospheres of exoplanets across the mass range, from isolated brown dwarfs to hot Jupiters, mini-Neptunes and rocky planets. Following this, she took up a Carnegie Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Carnegie Institution for Science, Earth and Planets Laboratory in Washington, DC, before moving to the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø as an Assistant Professor in 2024.

Anjali continues to study exoplanets across the diverse parameter space they cover, including lava worlds and giant exoplanets orbiting the smallest stars. She uses a combination of forward and inverse modelling methods to study the complex interplay of processes in exoplanet atmospheres and interpret telescope observations, for example with the James Webb Space Telescope.

Teaching

  • Y1 Physics Tutorials
  • Y4 Project Supervision

Postgraduate supervision

PhD supervision in exoplanets and their atmospheres.

Research

  • Exoplanet atmospheres
  • Exoplanet atmosphere-interior interactions
  • Rocky exoplanets
  • Sub-Neptune exoplanets
  • Giant exoplanets
  • Radiative-convective atmospheric modelling
  • Atmospheric retrievals

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Scott, MG, Triaud, AHMJ, Barkaoui, K, Sebastian, D, Burgasser, AJ, Collins, KA, Dransfield, G, Hellier, C, Howell, SB, Piette, AAA, Rackham, BV, Stassun, KG, Stockholm, A, Timmermans, M, Watkins, CN, Fausnaugh, M, Fukui, A, Jenkins, JM, Narita, N, Ricker, G, Softich, E, Schwarz, RP, Seager, S, Shporer, A, Theissen, C, Twicken, JD, Winn, JN & Watanabe, D 2025, '', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. ,

Nixon, MC, Piette, A, Kempton, EMR, Gao, P, Bean, JL, Steinrueck, ME, Mahajan, AS, Eastman, JD, Zhang, M & Rogers, LA 2024, '', The Astrophysical Journal Letters, vol. 970, no. 2, L28.

Yang, J, Hammond, M, Piette, AAA, Blecic, J, Bell, TJ, Irwin, PGJ, Parmentier, V, Tsai, S-M, Barstow, JK, Crouzet, N, Kreidberg, L, Mendonça, JM, Taylor, J, Baeyens, R, Ohno, K, Teinturier, L & Nixon, MC 2024, '', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 532, no. 1, pp. 460-475.

Powell, D, Feinstein, AD, Lee, EKH, Zhang, M, Tsai, S-M, Taylor, J, Kirk, J, Bell, T, Barstow, JK, Gao, P, Bean, JL, Blecic, J, Chubb, KL, Crossfield, IJM, Jordan, S, Kitzmann, D, Moran, SE, Morello, G, Moses, JI, Welbanks, L, Yang, J, Zhang, X, Ahrer, E-M, Bello-Arufe, A, Brande, J, Casewell, SL, Crouzet, N, Cubillos, PE, Demory, B-O, Dyrek, A, Flagg, L, Hu, R, Inglis, J, Jones, KD, Kreidberg, L, López-Morales, M, Lagage, P-O, Meier Valdés, EA, Miguel, Y, Parmentier, V, Piette, AAA, Rackham, BV, Radica, M, Redfield, S, Stevenson, KB, Wakeford, HR, Aggarwal, K, Alam, MK, Batalha, NM, Batalha, NE, Benneke, B, Berta-Thompson, ZK, Brady, RP, Caceres, C, Carter, AL, Désert, J-M, Harrington, J, Iro, N, Line, MR, Lothringer, JD, MacDonald, RJ, Mancini, L, Molaverdikhani, K, Mukherjee, S, Nixon, MC, Oza, AV, Palle, E, Rustamkulov, Z, Sing, DK, Steinrueck, ME, Venot, O, Wheatley, PJ & Yurchenko, SN 2024, '', Nature, vol. 626, no. 8001, pp. 979-983.

Coulombe, L-P, Benneke, B, Challener, R, Piette, AAA, Wiser, LS, Mansfield, M, MacDonald, RJ, Beltz, H, Feinstein, AD, Radica, M, Savel, AB, Dos Santos, LA, Bean, JL, Parmentier, V, Wong, I, Rauscher, E, Komacek, TD, Kempton, EM-R, Tan, X, Hammond, M, Lewis, NT, Line, MR, Lee, EKH, Shivkumar, H, Crossfield, IJM, Nixon, MC, Rackham, BV, Wakeford, HR, Welbanks, L, Zhang, X, Batalha, NM, Berta-Thompson, ZK, Changeat, Q, Désert, J-M, Espinoza, N, Goyal, JM, Harrington, J, Knutson, HA, Kreidberg, L, López-Morales, M, Shporer, A, Sing, DK, Stevenson, KB, Aggarwal, K, Ahrer, E-M, Alam, MK, Bell, TJ, Blecic, J, Caceres, C, Carter, AL, Casewell, SL, Crouzet, N, Cubillos, PE, Decin, L, Fortney, JJ, Gibson, NP, Heng, K, Henning, T, Iro, N, Kendrew, S, Lagage, P-O, Leconte, J, Lendl, M, Lothringer, JD, Mancini, L, Mikal-Evans, T, Molaverdikhani, K, Nikolov, NK, Ohno, K, Palle, E, Piaulet, C, Redfield, S, Roy, P-A, Tsai, S-M, Venot, O & Wheatley, PJ 2023, '', Nature, vol. 620, no. 7973, pp. 292–298.

Kempton, EM-R, Zhang, M, Bean, JL, Steinrueck, ME, Piette, AAA, Parmentier, V, Malsky, I, Roman, MT, Rauscher, E, Gao, P, Bell, TJ, Xue, Q, Taylor, J, Savel, AB, Arnold, KE, Nixon, MC, Stevenson, KB, Mansfield, M, Kendrew, S, Zieba, S, Ducrot, E, Dyrek, A, Lagage, P-O, Stassun, KG, Henry, GW, Barman, T, Lupu, R, Malik, M, Kataria, T, Ih, J, Fu, G, Welbanks, L & McGill, P 2023, '', Nature, vol. 620, pp. 67–71.

JWST Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science Team 2023, '', Nature, vol. 614, pp. 649–652.

Piette, AAA, Gao, P, Brugman, K, Shahar, A, Lichtenberg, T, Miozzi, F & Driscoll, P 2023, '', The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 954, no. 1, 29.

Gao, P, Piette, AAA, Steinrueck, ME, Nixon, MC, Zhang, M, Kempton, EM-R, Bean, JL, Rauscher, E, Parmentier, V, Batalha, NE, Savel, AB, Arnold, KE, Roman, MT, Malsky, I & Taylor, J 2023, '', The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 951, no. 2, 96.

Kanodia, S, Mahadevan, S, Libby-Roberts, J, Stefansson, G, Cañas, CI, Piette, AAA, Boss, A, Teske, J, Chambers, J, Zeimann, G, Monson, A, Robertson, P, Ninan, JP, Lin, ASJ, Bender, CF, Cochran, WD, Diddams, SA, Gupta, AF, Halverson, S, Hawley, S, Kobulnicky, HA, Metcalf, AJ, Parker, BA, Powers, L, Ramsey, LW, Roy, A, Schwab, C, Swaby, TN, Terrien, RC & Wisniewski, J 2023, '', The Astronomical Journal, vol. 165, no. 3, 120.

Blažek, M, Kabáth, P, Piette, AAA, Madhusudhan, N, Skarka, M, Šubjak, J, Anderson, DR, Boffin, HMJ, Cáceres, CC, Gibson, NP, Hoyer, S, Ivanov, VD & Rojo, PM 2022, '', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 513, no. 3, pp. 3444–3457.

Piette, AAA, Madhusudhan, N & Mandell, AM 2022, '', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 511, no. 2, pp. 2565–2584.

Madhusudhan, N, Piette, AAA & Constantinou, S 2021, '', The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 918, no. 1, 1.

Letter

Madhusudhan, N, Sarkar, S, Constantinou, S, Holmberg, M, Piette, AAA & Moses, JI 2023, '', The Astrophysical Journal Letters, vol. 956, no. 1, L13.

Preprint

Bell, TJ, Crouzet, N, Cubillos, PE, Kreidberg, L, Piette, AAA, Roman, MT, Barstow, JK, Blecic, J, Carone, L, Coulombe, L-P, Ducrot, E, Hammond, M, Mendonça, JM, Moses, JI, Parmentier, V, Stevenson, KB, Teinturier, L, Zhang, M, Batalha, NM, Bean, JL, Benneke, B, Charnay, B, Chubb, KL, Demory, B-O, Gao, P, Lee, EKH, López-Morales, M, Morello, G, Rauscher, E, Sing, DK, Tan, X, Venot, O, Wakeford, HR, Aggarwal, K, Ahrer, E-M, Alam, MK, Baeyens, R, Barrado, D, Caceres, C, Carter, AL, Casewell, SL, Challener, RC, Crossfield, IJM, Decin, L, Désert, J-M, Dobbs-Dixon, I, Dyrek, A, Espinoza, N, Feinstein, AD, Gibson, NP, Harrington, J, Helling, C, Hu, R, Iro, N, Kempton, EM-R, Kendrew, S, Komacek, TD, Krick, J, Lagage, P-O, Leconte, J, Lendl, M, Lewis, NT, Lothringer, JD, Malsky, I, Mancini, L, Mansfield, M, Mayne, NJ, Mikal-Evans, T, Molaverdikhani, K, Nikolov, NK, Nixon, MC, Palle, E, Roche, DJMPDDL, Piaulet, C, Powell, D, Rackham, BV, Schneider, AD, Steinrueck, ME, Taylor, J, Welbanks, L, Yurchenko, SN, Zhang, X & Zieba, S 2024 '' Nature Research. ,

Expertise


  • Exoplanets and their atmospheres

Languages and other information

Fluent in English and French.

Media experience


  • BBC/PBS Documentary – “Nova Universe Revealed: Alien Worlds”
  • PBS Documentary – “Great American Eclipse”
  • YouTube Series – “The Making of a Physicist”