James Owen | |
|---|---|
| Alma mater | University of Cambridge (Ph.D. 2011) University of Cambridge (M.Sci 2008) |
| Known for | Small planet radius gap |
| Awards | RAS Fowler Award (2021)[1] |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astrophysics, exoplanets |
| Institutions | Imperial College London |
| Doctoral advisor | Cathie Clarke |
James E. Owen is an astrophysicist at Imperial College London who studies exoplanets and accretion disks.[2]
James Owen graduated with M.Sci. degree in Natural Sciences from Churchill College, University of Cambridge in 2008. He then undertook his Ph.D. at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge under the supervision of Professor Cathie Clarke.[2][3] He was a post-doctoral fellow at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics from 2011 to 2014[3] and then a NASA Hubble Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study from 2014 to 2017.[4] In 2017 he joined Imperial College, first as a Royal Society University Research Fellow[5] and is currently a senior lecturer in exoplanet physics.[6] In collaboration with Yanqin Wu, James Owen studied the photoevaporation of exoplanet atmospheres, predicting the existence of the Small planet radius gap in 2013, four years before its confirmation.[7]
In 2019 he was awarded an ERC starting grant to further his studies of exoplanet atmospheres.[8] In 2021 he was award the Royal Astronomical Society's Fowler award for early achievement in astronomy for his prediction of the exoplanet radius gap.[8][1]