Prashant Pathak

About

Currently, I am a faculty member at the Space, Planetary & Astronomical Sciences & Engineering (SPASE) department, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, specializing in instrumentation for direct imaging of exoplanets. My research interest lies in applications of adaptive optics and the development of ground and space-based instruments.

I did my PhD in 2017, working at the Subaru Telescope, in Hawaii, USA. Later I worked at ESO (European Southern Observatory) and the University of Liege for my postdocs. I worked on various astronomical instrumentation projects such as METIS (mid-infrared imager and spectrograph), NEAR (New Earths in the Alpha Cen Region), and SCExAO (Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics).

Employment

• IITK Assistant Professor
  2023 - Present
• ULiège Postdoc Fellow
  2021 - 2023
• European Southern Observatory Postdoc Fellow
  2018 - 2021

Education

• Subaru Telescope PhD
  2014 - 2018

Projects & Funding

Projects & funding information is unavailable.

Publications (45)

• A temperate super-Jupiter imaged with JWST in the mid-infrared
  Arxiv 2025 DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2503.01599
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• VLT/ERIS Observations of the V960 Mon System: A Dust-embedded Substellar Object Formed by Gravitational Instability?
  The Astrophysical Journal Letters 2025 DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ade996
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• A temperate super-Jupiter imaged with JWST in the mid-infrared
  Nature 2024 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07837-8
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• ALF: an asymmetric Lyot wavefront sensor for the ELT/METIS vortex coronagraph
  Proceedings of SPIE the International Society for Optical Engineering 2024 DOI: 10.1117/12.3019159
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• ALF: an asymmetric Lyot wavefront sensor for the ELT/METIS vortex coronagraph
  Arxiv 2024 DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2407.14403
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• METIS high-contrast imaging: from final design to manufacturing and testing
  Proceedings of SPIE the International Society for Optical Engineering 2024 DOI: 10.1117/12.3019692
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• METIS high-contrast imaging: from final design to manufacturing and testing
  Arxiv 2024 DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2407.10588
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• Lessons learned from the NEAR experiment and prospects for the upcoming mid-IR HCI instruments
  Arxiv 2023 DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2302.12101
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• Impact of water vapor seeing on mid-infrared high-contrast imaging at ELT scale
  Proceedings of SPIE the International Society for Optical Engineering 2022 DOI: 10.1117/12.2627972
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• The High-contrast End-to-End Performance Simulator (HEEPS): influence of ELT/METIS instrumental effects
  Proceedings of SPIE the International Society for Optical Engineering 2022 DOI: 10.1117/12.2630341
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