Daniel Huber

Aloha! I am an associate professor at the Institute for Astronomy (IfA) of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. My research group focuses on the study of fundamental properties of stars and stellar populations in our galaxy, as well as the discovery and characterization of exoplanets.

I was born and raised in Vienna, Austria, and earned my PhD in Astrophysics at the University of Sydney, Australia. I then worked as a member of the Kepler team at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, before returning to the University of Sydney to take up an ARC DECRA fellowship. In January 2017 I joined the faculty at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Research

My group is leading research projects broadly related to the study of stars and exoplanets in our galaxy. The links below provide brief summary of current research projects and recent publications. For more information see the NASA ADS listings of my refereed publications, my ORCID profile and my Google Scholar profile.

Group

Current:
Theron Carmichael (NSF Postdoctoral Fellow)
Daniel Hey (Variable Stars Postdoctoral Fellow)
Marc Hon (Hubble Fellow)
Yaguang Li (Parrent Postdoctoral Fellow)
Casey Brinkman (PhD, NSF Graduate Research Fellow, co-advised with Lauren Weiss)
Nicholas Saunders (PhD, NSF Graduate Research Fellow)
Jingwen Zhang (PhD, co-advised with Lauren Weiss)
Aldo Sepulveda (699-1, 699-2)

Former:
Postdoctoral:
Lauren Weiss (2018-2021, Parrent Fellow)
Jamie Tayar (2018-2021, Hubble Fellow)
Postgraduate:
Ashley Chontos (2017-2022, PhD)
Travis Berger (2017-2021, PhD)
Larissa Nofi (2019-2020, PhD)
Sam Grunblatt (2016-2019, PhD)
Jie Yu (2015-2019, PhD, co-advised with Tim Bedding)
Isabel Colman (2015-2019, PhD, co-advised with Tim Bedding)
Keyan Gootkin (699-1, co-advised with Marc Hon)
Aleezah Ali (2021, 699-1)
Vanshree Bhalotia (2019)
Erica Bufanda (2019, 699-2, co-advised with Jamie Tayar)
Connor Auge (2018, 699-2)
Jessica Stasik (2018, 699-1)
Undergraduate:
JC Dumaslan (REU 2022)
Kaleo Toguchi-Tan (REU 2022)
Jessica Nagasako (REU 2022)
Luke Benavitz (REU 2022)
Kiana Ejercito (REU 2022)
Madison Hara (REU 2021)
Jay Baptista (REU 2021)
Tets Nagashima (REU 2021)
Maryum Sayeed (2019-2020, post-bac)
Linnea Wolniewicz (2020 REU)
Michael Greklek-McKeon (2018 REU)
Oana Vesa (2017 REU)
Caleb Canas (2013 internship at NASA Ames)

Outreach & Press

UH astronomers part of NASA's $19.5M artificial star mission (June 2024) :
UH Press Release
Hawaii News Now

UH astronomers uncover array of strange exoplanet worlds (May 2024) :
UH Press Release

World's most influential researchers list features UH scientists (November 2023) :
UH Press Release

Astronomers puzzled by planet that should not exist (June 2023) :
UH Press Release
The Conversation (authored)
New York Times
CNN
ABC
RNZ radio interview

Planet spiraling to its doom discovered by UH astronomers (December 2022) :
UH Press Release
KHON News

UH scientists among world's most influential researchers (November 2022) :
UH Press Release

Undergrads from Hawaii Help Map Galaxy Through Scialog Team's Collaboration (September 2022) :
RCSA News Story

Exoplanets: The Hunt for Life in the Universe (August 2022) :
University of Hawaii Noelo Magazine

Newly-discovered planets will be "swallowed" by their star (January 2022) :
University of Hawaii Press Release
Spectrum News Hawaii
Hawaii Public Radio
Space Daily
Universe Today

4 top UH researchers recognized for global excellence (December 2021) :
University of Hawaii Press Release

NASA's TESS Tunes into an All-sky Symphony of Red Giant Stars (August 2021) :
NASA Press Release
University of Hawaii Press Release
Space.com

IfA students receive research, teaching accolades (June 2021) :
University of Hawaii Press Release

Planets can shrink? UH astronomers find new evidence (January 2021) :
University of Hawaii Press Release

$5M award aids search for a "recipe" for habitable worlds (November 2020) :
University of Hawaii Press Release

UH astronomers to construct 3D map of Milky Way galaxy (September 2020) :
University of Hawaii Press Release

Board of Regents honors faculty for excellence in research (May 2020) :
University of Hawaii Press Release

UH astronomers decipher rhythm among young stars (May 2020) :
University of Hawaii Press Release
CNN

NASA awards grant to UH graduate student Travis Berger (July 2019) :
University of Hawaii Press Release

Kepler Space Telescope's First Exoplanet Candidate Confirmed, Ten Years After Launch (Chontos et al. 2019) :
NASA Discovery Alert
CNN
University of Hawaii Press Release
Universe Today

University of Hawaii Astronomer Awarded Prestigious Sloan Foundation Fellowship (February 2019) :
University of Hawaii Press Release

Symphony of stars: The science of stellar sound waves (July 2018) :
NASA Feature Article

Revised Radii of Kepler Stars and Planets Using Gaia Data Release 2 (Berger et al. 2018):
Science News

UH astronomers to uncover the secrets of stars and exoplanets with NASA's TESS satellite (March 2018) :
University of Hawaii Press Release
Forbes

Newly Discovered Twin Planets Could Solve Puffy Planet Mystery (Grunblatt et al. 2017):
IfA Press Release
Space.com
Universe Today

Stellar Variability in the Seven Sisters of the Pleiades Cluster (White et al. 2017):
University of Hawaii Press Release
Big Island Now

Discovery of magnetic fields in the cores of red giant stars (Stello et al. 2016, Nature):
ABC AM Radio

Discovery a near Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone of a Sun-like Star (Jenkins et al. 2015):
ABC Live Breakfast Television
ABC Radio
Sydney Morning Herald
3AW Radio

Discovery of the oldest known system of sub Earth-sized planets (Campante et al. 2015):
The Conversation (authored)
ABC Science Online
Sydney Morning Herald
Space.com

Discovery of the first Spin-Orbit Misalignment in a Multiplanet System (Huber et al. 2013, Science):
Nature
NBC News
Space.com
Scientific American
IB Times
CS Monitor
Welt der Physik

NASA/KASC press conference announcing Kepler asteroseismology results (Huber et al. 2011)
Wall Street Journal
MSNBC
Voice of America
Wired Magazine
Press Release Material (including star sounds!)

Discovery of the triply eclipsing triple system HD181096 ("Trinity") (Derekas et al. 2011, Science)
Phys.org
University of Sydney Press Release
Press Release Animations

Discovery of gravity-mode spacings as a tool to probe the cores of red-giant stars (Bedding et al. 2011, Nature)
Space.com
NBC

Asteroseismology meets Contemporary Art - Collaborations with NY-based artist Jeff Talman:
Nature of the Night Sky, Bavarian Forrest, Germany (2011)
NPR interview with Jeff Talman
Moments from the Sun at Rothko Chapel, Houston, TX (2014)
Under the Sun, St. Peter's Church, NYC (2018)
Beyond the Sunset & In Your Stars, Mt. Wilson Observatory, CA (2018)
Beyond the Sunset & In Your Stars, Mt. Wilson Observatory, CA (2018)

Talks

Recorded Talks:
"Asteroseismology of Cool Dwarfs with Extreme Precision Radial Velocities": EPRV Research Coordination Network Colloquium (Jul 2022)
"Asteroseismology & Exoplanets with the Roman Space Telescope": 2022 TASC Workshop, Leuven, Belgium (Jul 2022)
"Astrometry and Exoplanet Host Star Properties": Invited Lecture at the 2022 Sagan Workshop, Caltech, Pasadena, CA (Jul 2022)
"Solar-Like Oscillations: Lessons Learned and First Results from TESS (starting at ~1:37)": Invited talk at "Stars and their Variability from Space", Vienna, Austria (August 2019)
"Asteroseismology for Exoplaneteers": KITP, UC Santa Barbara (May 2019)
"Asteroseismology with WFIRST": Invited Lecture at 2017 Sagan Workshop, Caltech, Pasadena, CA (Aug 2017)
"Asteroseismology with Red Giants": Invited Talk at KITP Conference "The Milky Way and its Stars", Santa Barbara, CA (Feb 2015)
"Asteroseismology Data Analysis Tutorial": KITP, UC Santa Barbara (Feb 2015)
"Towards Improved Occurrence Rates of Exoplanets": SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA (Apr 2014)
"Asteroseismology of Exoplanet Host Stars": Invited Talk at Second Kepler Science Conference, NASA Ames, Mountain View, CA (Nov 2013)

Other Invited Talks and Colloquia:
ACAMAR 9: Australia China Workshop on Astrophysics, Perth, WA (July 2023)
Colloquium, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD (October 2022)
NASA Sagan Workshop, Caltech, Pasadena, CA (Jul 2022)
Colloquium, Caltech, Pasadena, CA (March 2022)
Colloquium, Flatiron Institute/CCA, New York City, NY (December 2021)
Colloquium, Nanjing University (online, December 2021)
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS), Tokyo Institute of Technology (online, December 2020)
"Exoplanets III", Heidelberg, Germany (online, Jul 2020)
"Stars and Their Variability Observed from Space", Vienna, Austria (Aug 2019)
Fourth TESS Asteroseismic Science Consortium Conference, MIT, Cambridge, USA (Jul 2019)
"Kepler and K2's 500,000 high-precision light curves", AAS Seattle, WA (Jan 2019)
TESS Splinter Session, AAS Seattle, WA (Jan 2019)
"Science with SONG: 4 more years", Tenerife, Spain (October 2018)
"A revolution in stellar physics with Gaia and large surveys", Warsaw, Poland (Sep 2018)
Astrophysics Science Division Colloquium, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, MD (Mar 2018)
Exoplanets and Planet Formation, Shanghai, China (Dec 2017)
"Know Thy Star, Know Thy Planet", Caltech, Pasadena, CA (Oct 2017)
NASA Sagan Workshop, Caltech, Pasadena, CA (Aug 2017)
Third TESS Asteroseismic Science Consortium Conference, Birmingham, UK (Jul 2017)
Colloquium, Columbia University, New York City, NY (Mar 2017)
International Advanced School in Space Sciences, Azores, Portugal (Jul 2016)
K2 Science Conference, Santa Barbara, CA (Nov 2015)
New Horizons in Astronomy: Frank N. Bash Symposium 2015, Austin, TX (Oct 2015)
Chaos Among the Stars, Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI (Aug 2015)
Advances in Stellar Physics from Asteroseismology, IAU General Assembly, Honolulu, HI (Aug 2015)
Annual Scientific Meeting of the Astronomical Society of Australia, Perth, Australia (Jul 2015)
Kepler & TESS Asteroseismic Science Consortium Conference, Aarhus, Denmark (Jun 2015)
Colloquium, Australia National University, Canberra, ACT (Apr 2015)
Colloquium, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI (Mar 2015)
Colloquium, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA (Mar 2015)
Colloquium, Massachusetts Institute for Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (Mar 2015)
Colloquium, Yale University, New Haven, CT (Feb 2015)
LAMOST-Kepler Workshop, Beijing, China (Aug 2014)
18th Cambridge Workshop on Cool Stars, Stellar Systems, and the Sun, Flagstaff, AZ (Jun 2014)
Colloquium, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON (Apr 2014)
Colloquium, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL (Apr 2014)
Colloquium, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH (Sep 2013)
Giants of Eclipse, AAS Topical Conference, Monterey, CA (Jul 2013)
Sixth Kepler Asteroseismic Science Consortium Conference, Sydney, Australia(Jun 2013)
Kepler Special Session, 221st AAS Meeting, Long Beach, CA (Jan 2013)
Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, Santa Barbara, CA (Jan 2013)
Fifth Kepler Asteroseismic Science Consortium Conference, Balatonalmadi, Hungary (Jun 2012)

Teaching

From Earth to Exoplanets, University of Sydney OLE1636 (2023)
Oscillations & Waves, University of Sydney PHYS1002 Fundamentals (2023)
Foundations of Astrophysics I: The Solar System, University of Hawaii ASTR241 (Fall 2022)
Planetary Systems: A Data-Driven Exploration, University of Hawaii ASTR735 (Spring 2019, 2021)
Radiative Transfer and Stellar Atmospheres, University of Hawaii ASTR631 (Spring 2018, 2020, 2022)
Coding Practices, University of Hawaii AST699DR (Fall 2017)
Astro-ph Seminar, University of Hawaii AST734/735/790
Oscillations & Waves, University of Sydney PHYS1001 Regular (2016)
Interferometry & Asteroseismology, Cape Breton University Undergrad Guest Lecture (2014)
Asteroseismology, UC Santa Cruz ASTR-112 Graduate Guest Lectures (2012)