Mahmuda Afrin Badhan completed a PhD in exoplanet atmosphere modeling at the University of Maryland, where she conducted research at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Her PhD work, primarily theoretical and empirical in nature, involved modeling and interpreting atmosphere predictions of planets predicted to be observable through current and future (planned) space missions.
In 2019 she took up postdoctoral research in the physics department at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, working on reduction and analysis of data from a ground-based telescope. She completed undergraduate studies at Mount Holyoke College.
Exoplanet habitability/astrobiology
Planetary atmosphere sensing in UV
Optical and infrared via space telescopes
Star-planet interactions
Planet detection via ground-based IFU spectrographs
Interdisciplinary research
GRC Student Travel Grant: awarded by SOC to attend the Gordon Research Conference on Origins of Solar Systems
AbSciCon Travel Grant: awarded by the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) to attend the AbSciCon 2017
UMCP Jacob K. Goldhaber Travel Award: awarded by the Graduate School (GS) to attend the 228th AAS meeting May ’16 1st Place, Physics & Astro
GRAD 2016: travel award for best oral presentation in campus-wide thesis competition
Dean’s Fellowship: recruitment fellowship awarded by the GS to the top students in the incoming class
Rogers D. Rusk Memorial Prize: departmental prize awarded to a major for showing distinction in physics
MHC Leadership Awards: merit-based scholarship awarded for exemplary secondary school records
