Brett Morris

Dr. Brett M. Morris is a senior astronomical data scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD. He maintains an active research portfolio, and contributes to open-source software with the goal of enabling cutting-edge observations of exoplanets and their host stars.

Before arriving at STScI, Dr. Morris held a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Center for Space and Habitability at the University of Bern in Bern, Switzerland. Dr. Morris defended his dual-title PhD in Astronomy and Astrobiology from the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington in 2019. Brett worked on his dissertation, titled "The Effects of Stellar Magnetic Activity and Variability on Observations of Exoplanets."

Earlier, Dr. Morris was a research assistant at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and an undergraduate in physics and astronomy at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland.

Dr. Morris has been the principal investigator of many observing campaigns from the ground and space, including as PI of a JWST Cycle 3 Archival Research program, an 84-orbit planet-hunting program with CHEOPS, and more than 100 half-nights at the Astrophysical Research Consortium (ARC) 3.5 m Telescope at Apache Point Observatory (APO) in New Mexico.

Education:

PhD in Astronomy and Astrobiology, University of Washington
MS in Astronomy, University of Washington
BS in Astronomy, University of Maryland
BS in Physics, University of Maryland

Science Interests:

• Exoplanets: atmospheres, phase curves, transits, emission and reflection spectroscopy
• Stars: atmospheres, magnetic activity, rotation
• Space and ground-based observations: photometry, spectroscopy, optical/NIR
• Open source software development

Research Topics:  Exoplanets

Professional Websites:

Brett Morris

ORCID ID: 0000-0003-2528-3409