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Lauren Weiss

Assistant Professor, Department of Physics & Astronomy

Assistant Professor, Department of Physics & Astronomy

Office
334 Nieuwland Science Hall
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Phone
+1 574-631-2865
Email
lweiss4@nd.edu

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To learn more about Prof. Weiss’s research and teaching activities, visit www.astroweiss.com.

Research Interests

Prof. Lauren M. Weiss is a member of the Astrophysics group. She uses observational techniques to discover planets around other stars (exoplanets) and characterize their fundamental properties, with the goals of (1) understanding the origin and evolution of planetary systems, and (2) assessing exoplanet habitability. 

Professor Weiss’ research highlights include:

  • Discovered the distinction between planets with rocky surfaces and gas envelopes at 1.5 Earth radii
  • Discovered the similar sizes and regular spacings of planets in coplanar multi-planet systems (the "peas in a pod" pattern)
  • Principal Investigator of a NASA/U. Hawaii Key Strategic Mission Support program at Keck Observatory to study the diversity of planet interiors in multi-planet systems
  • A senior member of the Keck Planet Hunters/California Planet Search collaboration.

Education

B.A. cum laude in Astronomy & Astrophysics, Harvard University 2010

M.Phil. in Astronomy, University of Cambridge 2011

Ph.D. in Astronomy, University of California at Berkeley 2016

Publications

An up-to-date record of publications is here: [SAO/NASA ADS link]. Selected publications are listed below.

Book chapters:

  1. Architectures of Compact Multi-Planet Systems, Weiss, L. M., Millholland, S., Petigura, E. A. et al., Protostars and Planets VII (2022)

Refereed Journal Articles:

  1. The Mass-Radius Relation for 65 Exoplanets Smaller than 4 Earth Radii, Weiss, L. M., & Marcy, G. W., The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 783, L6 (2014)
  2. The Mass of KOI-94d and a Relation for Planet Radius, Mass, and Incident Flux, Weiss, L. M., Marcy, G. W., Rowe, J. F., et al., The Astrophysical Journal,768,14 (2013)
  3. The California-Kepler Survey. V. Peas in a Pod: Planets in a Kepler Multi-planet System Are Similar in Size and Regularly Spaced, Weiss, L. M., Marcy, G. W., Petigura, E. A., et al., The Astronomical Journal, 155, 48 (2018)
  4. The California-Kepler Survey. VI. Kepler Multis and Singles Have Similar Planet and Stellar Properties Indicating a Common Origin, Weiss, L. M., Isaacson, H. T., Marcy, G. W., et al., The Astronomical Journal, 156, 254 (2018)
  5. Revised Masses and Densities of the Planets around Kepler-10, Weiss, L. M., Rogers, L. A., Isaacson, H. T., et al., The Astrophysical Journal, 819, 83 (2016)
  6. New Insights on Planet Formation in WASP-47 from a Simultaneous Analysis of Radial Velocities and Transit Timing Variations, Weiss, L. M., Deck, K. M., Sinukoff, E., et al., The Astronomical Journal, 153, 265 (2017)
  7. Radial Velocity Discovery of an Eccentric Jovian World Orbiting at 18 au, Blunt, S., Endl, M., Weiss, L. M., et al., The Astronomical Journal, 158, 181 (2019)
  8. The Kepler Peas in a Pod Pattern is Astrophysical, Weiss, L. M., & Petigura, E. A., The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 893, L1 (2020)
  9. The Discovery of the Long-Period, Eccentric Planet Kepler-88 d and System Characterization with Radial Velocities and Photodynamical Analysis, Weiss, L. M., Fabrycky, D. C., Agol, E., Mills, S. M., Howard, A. W., Isaacson, H., Petigura, E. A., Fulton, B., Hirsch, L., & Sinukoff, E., The Astronomical Journal, 159, 242 (2020)
  10. The TESS-Keck Survey II: An Ultra-Short Period Rocky Planet and its Siblings Transiting the Galactic Thick-Disk Star TOI-561, Weiss, L. M., Dai, F., Huber, D., et al., The Astronomical Journal, 161, 56 (2021)

Zhang, J., Weiss, L. M., Huber, D., et al. (2021), Long-period Jovian Tilts the Orbits of Two sub-Neptunes Relative to Stellar Spin Axis in Kepler-129 The Astronomical Journal, 162, 89