§ 01People · Faculty
Brendan Bowler
Associate Professor
Brendan Bowler studies how planets form and evolve, through their orbits and their atmospheres. His group uses high contrast adaptive optics imaging, near-IR spectroscopy and precision radial velocities, with Keck Observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope and JWST. Topics include young protoplanets and their accretion disks, weather in brown dwarfs and giant planets, and the statistics of planets on wide orbits. With Sarah Blunt and Eric Nielsen he showed that imaged giant planets and brown dwarf companions have different eccentricity distributions. The difference is evidence that they form in different ways. His long term goal is to search terrestrial planets in habitable zones for signs of life.
After a PhD from the University of Hawaii in 2013, he was on the UT Austin astronomy faculty from 2018 to 2024 and joined UCSB in 2025. He received a Sloan Research Fellowship in 2022.
§ 02Fig. 1
Where in the universe
Range 10 ly to 630 ly
§ 03Publications
Recent papers
The newest papers with Brendan Bowler as an author, from NASA ADS. Group members are in gold.
- 01Oct 2026AJA Sulfur-rich Atmosphere for the Young Jupiter Analog AF Lep b Reveals Significant Solid AccretionJ. W. Xuan, W. O. Balmer, Y. Chachan, J.-B. Ruffio, K. Ohno, R. J. De Rosa, A. Baburaj, E. L. Nielsen et al. (28 authors); UCSB: B. P. BowlerExoplanetsarXiv:2608.10068
- 02Sep 2026arXivAstrometric Evidence for Outer Giant Planets in Known Exoplanet SystemsC. R. Do Ó, W. Thompson, D. Blakely, A. Sanghi, J. W. Xuan, D. Mawet, J. Speedie, S. Blunt et al. (22 authors); UCSB: B. P. BowlerExoplanetsarXiv:2609.37160
- 03Sep 2026arXivThe JWST Sub-Jupiters Survey: Direct Imaging Discovery of a Giant Planet and a Debris Disk Around the Young M-dwarf RX J0534.0-0221R. Ferrer-Chavez, J. J. Wang, K. Wagner, K. Lawson, A. L. Carter, B. Biller, R. Bendahan-West, P. McCreery et al. (50 authors); UCSB: B. P. Bowler, M. A. Millar-BlanchaerExoplanetsarXiv:2609.20748
- 04Sep 2026arXivThe Dyn-Atmo Survey: JWST/NIRSpec spectroscopy of dynamical benchmark GJ 758 BA. Madurowicz, E. Rickman, D. Bardalez Gagliuffi, J. Mang, K. Ward-Duong, W. O. Balmer, B. P. Bowler, E. Calamari et al. (25 authors)ExoplanetsarXiv:2609.11828
- 05Sep 2026arXivThe Dyn-Atmo Survey: High-contrast Imaging Spectroscopy of the Substellar Companion HD 13724 B with the JWST NIRSpec IFUK. K. W. Hoch, A. Madurowicz, E. Nasedkin, E. Rickman, D. C. Bardalez Gagliuffi, J. Mang, C. V. Morley, C. A. Theissen et al. (25 authors); UCSB: B. P. BowlerExoplanetsarXiv:2609.11827
- 06Sep 2026arXivDeep Hα Imaging Survey of IC 348 with the Hubble Space Telescope: I. Accretion Properties of Stellar and Substellar ObjectsL. Yushu Jiang, B. P. Bowler, Y. Zhou, A. L. Kraus, S. M. Andrews, L. A. Hillenbrand, M. J. Ireland, Z. ZhuExoplanetsarXiv:2609.05620
- 07Sep 2026AJPhotometric Variability and Rotation of β Pictoris b from JWST NIRCam Coronagraphic ImagingY. Zhou, B. A. Biller, A. L. Carter, M. D. Perrin, M. Poon, G. Suárez, B. J. Sutlieff, J. M. Vos et al. (31 authors); UCSB: B. P. BowlerExoplanetsarXiv:2607.13133
- 08Aug 2026arXivThe γ Cephei System: Updated Orbits, Dynamical Architecture, and Limits on Additional CompanionsJ. Van Zandt, B. P. Bowler, M. Endl, W. D. Cochran, P. MacQueen, A. Hatzes, G. Torres, D. W. Latham et al. (21 authors); UCSB: L. Jiang, M. MorganExoplanetsarXiv:2608.30030
- 09Aug 2026arXivAtmospheric Diversity of Giant Planet Analogs from 3-5um with SPHERExR. Kiman, B. P. Bowler, J. W. Xuan, N. Mayer, C. FinleyExoplanetsarXiv:2608.08908
- 10Aug 2026arXivThe JWST Early Release Science Program for Direct Observations of Exoplanetary Systems VIII: patchy forsterite and enstatite clouds in the atmosphere of VHS 1256 b, retrieval lessons learned and outlook to the futureN. Whiteford, J. K. Faherty, B. Burningham, J. M. Vos, S. Petrus, P. Patapis, B. A. Biller, A. Skemer et al. (126 authors); UCSB: B. P. Bowler, M. A. Millar-BlanchaerExoplanetsarXiv:2608.06583