The University of New Mexico (UNM) announced that Dominic Oddo, a graduate student in the University of New Mexico Department of Physics and Astronomy, received the NASA FINESST grant to support his research until the completion of his Ph.D. Over the next three years, Oddo will leverage data from the NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission to investigate the prevalence of circumbinary planets (CBPs) in the galaxy. The announcement came on Thursday after an intense selection process.

Delving into the specifics of this prestigious award, The student authors the research proposal for the FINESST project, with only a 10% acceptance rate this year. The $150,000 award is competitive and typically supports the later stages of a graduate student's funding until graduation, according to a press release by UNM.

Reflecting on what this achievement means for him personally, "This award is very meaningful to me. Since it is directly an investment in me and the work that I'm doing, it means that the research area that I'm interested in is also of interest to others. In other words, it makes me feel like the work I'm doing is of interest and impactful to others as well. More broadly, it shows that scope of exoplanet research (planets orbiting stars other than our sun) is expanding to include stars and stellar systems that are not like ours, which is very exciting," said Oddo, according to a press release by UNM.

Detailing his research interests further, "I'm looking for CBPs, which are planets that orbit outside both stars in a tight stellar binary. These are exceedingly interesting planets for a multitude of reasons but some of the primary things are what they tell us about how planets and stars form in context and what our own solar system's place in the grand scheme of planetary systems is," said Oddo, according to a press release by UNM.

In highlighting the supportive academic environment at UNM, UNM's Physics and Astronomy Ph.D. program offers opportunities for theoretical and experimental research. It has 30 regular faculty members and a dynamic community including postdoctoral associates, adjunct faculty, and over 100 undergraduate and graduate students, according to the Physics and Astronomy department website provided by UNM.