Melinda Soares-Furtado

Melinda is a NASA Hubble Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is investigating anomalous stellar signatures that arise from the accretion/engulfment of substellar companions. Such signatures include chemical enrichment and rotational enhancement. One of her major objectives is to detect a star that has engulfed a planetary companion. Such a star could provide valuable constraints on the bulk composition of the companion, which would have far-reaching implications for the theory of planet formation. Melinda also applies image subtraction reduction techniques to photometric surveys (Kepler/K2) in an effort to search for periodic variability in open clusters. This includes the search for transiting exoplanets in these systems. When she is not glued to her terminal, you will likely find her hunting for vintage astronomy textbooks or tending to her ever-growing plant collection.