Meet the Fellows Research Designing tiny, lightweight optics that manipulate UV light in the quest for detecting signs of life in distant solar systems. Host University University of California, Los Angeles Year Awarded 2026 Website Professional Page Skyler Palatnick Ph.D. candidate, Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara Research Designing tiny, lightweight optics that manipulate UV light in the quest for detecting signs of life in distant solar systems. Host University University of California, Los Angeles Year Awarded 2026 Website Professional Page “Ultraviolet wavelengths have a lot of signatures that might be key to detecting signs of life on exoplanets. For coronagraphic instruments, there’s a huge gap in ultraviolet technology.”Skyler PalatnickSkyler Palatnick remembers his breakthrough moment. After years designing optical devices that block starlight to help reveal hidden planets, he had built a test setup in his lab. His prototype used metasurfaces—arrays of tiny, ultra-thin structures—to manipulate light. When he tested it for the first time as a planet-finding aid, its performance compared well with expensive, industry-made optics currently used in ground-based telescopes. Although his prototype had room for improvement, it proved the technology’s potential.As a journalism major in college, Mr. Palatnick took an elective astronomy course on exoplanets to fulfill a requirement—and loved it. He switched to astrophysics and later pursued a master’s degree in nanotechnology engineering. Through this less-expected journey, Mr. Palatnick honed an ability to assess complex problems quickly and develop practical solutions for planetary imaging.The technology he creates addresses a fundamental challenge: The extreme brightness of stars obscures their planets. To photograph planets directly, you need coronagraphs—instruments that block starlight. Typical coronagraphic masks use liquid crystal technology, which is expensive and difficult to manufacture. Metasurfaces offer an alternative that academic researchers can design, fabricate, and rapidly improve without leaving campus.These optical devices consist of billions of minute posts. The posts, often made of silicon, are only nanometers in size. When light passes through them, it pings around before emerging. By arranging posts of different sizes in specific patterns, Mr. Palatnick programs a metasurface to carefully manipulate starlight, directing it away from the image center to leave darkness, allowing faint planets to become visible.As a 51 Pegasi b Fellow, Mr. Palatnick will extend this work into ultraviolet wavelengths—a gap in current coronagraph technology—making it possible to detect more of the chemical signatures associated with biological processes. He’ll combine this innovation with conventional technologies to create lightweight, compact optics that could enable the search for signs of life in the Habitable Worlds Observatory mission that NASA is planning now.In the meantime, Mr. Palatnick is pleased to bring new tools, tech, and people to the fore. With appreciation for his own uncommon path to planetary science, Mr. Palatnick takes time and care to engage eager students in astronomy and research.Mr. Palatnick will receive his Ph.D. in physics with an emphasis on astrophysics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in Fall 2026.