Statia Luszcz Cook

Columbia University

Email:

shcookSPAMFILTER@amnh.org

Phone:

212-313-7080

Education

• Ph.D in Astrophysics, University of California, Berkeley, 2012
• B.A. in Astronomy, Cornell University, 2006

Research Interests

Dr. Luszcz-Cook is an observational astrophysicist interested in the atmospheres of giant planets. Her thesis work focused on observing the planet Neptune in two different wavelength ranges: the near-infrared and the millimeter. By developing and using radiative transfer codes to analyze these data, Dr. Luszcz-Cook learns about the composition, structure and variability of the atmospheres of Neptune and the other giant planets in our solar system.

In 2013, Dr. Luszcz-Cook joined the American Museum of Natural History as a postdoctoral fellow. She is a member of the Project 1640 team, which directly images the planets and brown dwarfs around other stars. She is interested in developing atmospheric retrieval techniques to constrain the properties of these extrasolar giants, and in understanding the solar system giant planets -- particularly Uranus and Neptune -- as local analogs for extrasolar planets that live far from their parent stars. She also maintains a passion for (sub)millimeter interferometry as a tool for probing the hidden secrets of giant planets, such as their global compositions.