Björn Benneke

• UCLA EPSS Associate Professor & Vice Chair for Graduate Studies

Björn Benneke is an Associate Professor of Planetary Astronomy at UCLA’s Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Science. He is known for his leadership in probing the chemical composition and habitability of planets outside the solar system using the world’s most powerful telescopes as well as advanced computer simulations. Currently, he is leading the largest survey program with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to probe the intriguing nature of water-world exoplanets. He also serves on the Science Advisory Councils of STScI’s historic JWST Rocky Worlds DDT program, the Thirty Meter Telescope construction project, as well as the instrument development teams of Keck/HISPEC and TMT/MODHIS.