UCSB Astrophysics
Portrait of Max Millar-Blanchaer

§ 01People · Faculty

Max Millar-Blanchaer

Associate Professor

Max Millar-Blanchaer studies exoplanets, brown dwarfs and debris disks through direct imaging. A central tool is polarimetry. Polarized light reveals faint dust disks next to bright stars and carries information about clouds in planetary atmospheres. His group builds instruments, observes with large telescopes and develops data analysis methods.

His instrument work includes the Gemini Planet Imager, the WIRC+Pol near-IR spectropolarimeter, a polarimetry mode for the Keck NIRC2 imager, and metasurface optics for coronagraphs. He co-leads the data reduction and simulations working group of the Roman Coronagraph Instrument. Results include polarization from cloud bands in the brown dwarf binary Luhman 16 and, with JWST, the first detection of water ice in the HD 141569A system.

He received his PhD from the University of Toronto in 2016, was a NASA Hubble Fellow at JPL, and joined UCSB in 2020.

§ 02Fig. 1

Where in the universe

Range 10 ly to 500 ly

Max Millar-Blanchaer, row of Fig. 1. The bar spans the light travel distances of the objects studied, 10 ly to 500 ly, on a logarithmic axis from the Solar System to the cosmic microwave background. Its color is the research theme. Dotted lines mark landmarks. Fig. 1 with every faculty member

§ 03Publications

Recent papers

The newest papers with Max Millar-Blanchaer as an author, from NASA ADS. Group members are in gold.

  1. 01Sep 2026arXiv
    The 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-BlanchaerExoplanets
    arXiv:2609.20748
  2. 02Aug 2026arXiv
    NIRC2-Pol: First Light of Near-Infrared Polarimetry on Keck IIB. L. Lewis, M. Zhang, M. A. Millar-Blanchaer, E. Marin, J. S. Nguyen, C. Alvarez, J. N. Ashcraft, M. Cisse et al. (24 authors)Exoplanets
    arXiv:2608.24661
  3. 03Aug 2026SPIE
    Demonstration of simultaneous PIAA-coronagraphy and wavefront sensing using a single metasurface-based focal-plane opticD. Patel, S. Y. Haffert, S. Palatnick, A. Taras, M. Millar-Blanchaer, M. Mars, E. Tonucci, J. R. Males et al. (26 authors); UCSB: M. A. Millar-BlanchaerExoplanets
    arXiv:2608.24289
  4. 04Aug 2026SPIE
    The Roman Coronagraph Community Participation Program: data reduction pipeline astrometric calibrationA. Chavez, J. Wang, V. P. Bailey, M. Millar-Blanchaer, J. Girard, J. Krist, J. Milton, M. YgoufExoplanets
    arXiv:2608.17985
  5. 05Aug 2026SPIE
    The Roman Coronagraph community participation program: calibration strategy for the Mueller matrix using on-sky sourcesT. Mizuki, J. Hom, B. Mennesson, R. M. Anche, M. A. Millar-Blanchaer, V. P. Bailey, K. Kawabata, M. Takeuchi et al. (17 authors)Exoplanets
    arXiv:2608.17369
  6. 06Aug 2026SPIE
    The Roman Coronagraph Community Participation Program: early calibration plan and pilot observation of a companionJ. H. Girard, E. Cady, N. T. Zimmerman, C. R. Do Ó, J. Zhang, G. Gonzalez, B. Nemati, V. P. Bailey et al. (45 authors); UCSB: M. Millar-Blanchaer, M. A. Millar-BlanchaerExoplanets
    arXiv:2608.17348
  7. 07Aug 2026SPIE
    The Roman Coronagraph Community Participation Program: observation planning and data reduction for polarimetric modeR. M. Anche, T. Mizuki, J. Hom, A. Lau, S. Choudhary, J. N. Ashcraft, C. Do O, T. Nagai et al. (28 authors); UCSB: M. A. Millar-BlanchaerExoplanets
    arXiv:2608.17133
  8. 08Aug 2026SPIE
    The Roman Coronagraph Community Participation Program: trials and triumphs of designing an observing program for a technology demonstration instrumentS. G. Wolff, V. P. Bailey, J. Hom, B. Biller, D. Savransky, J. H. Girard, E. Bogat, Ó. Carrión-González et al. (21 authors); UCSB: M. Millar-BlanchaerExoplanets
    arXiv:2608.17077
  9. 09Aug 2026SPIE
    The Roman Coronagraph Community Participation Program: pre-launch reference star list and impact of reference star properties on post-processing performanceJ. Hom, S. G. Wolff, J. Gersh-Range, R. M. Anche, V. P. Bailey, J.-P. Berger, B. A. Biller, W. Brandner et al. (54 authors); UCSB: M. A. Millar-BlanchaerExoplanets
    arXiv:2608.17057
  10. 10Aug 2026SPIE
    The Roman Coronagraph Community Participation Program: data reduction pipeline design and implementationJ. J. Wang, M. A. Millar-Blanchaer, M. Ygouf, J. Milton, J. Schreiber, K. J. Ludwick, E. Bogat, A. Chavez et al. (42 authors)Exoplanets
    arXiv:2608.17048

All papers by Max Millar-Blanchaer

Everyone in the group