As of August 2023, I am a National Research Council (NRC) Research Associate at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, D.C. I am also a TESS Follow-up Observing Program member and an affiliate of the Research Consortium on Nearby Stars (RECONS), headed by Prof. Todd J. Henry.
My research focuses on characterizing the magnetic properties of fully convective stars by searching for signatures of activity in radio frequencies. In particular, I am combing the VLA Low-band Ionosphere and Transient Experiment (VLITE) 340 MHz database for emission from the tens of thousands of stars observable within 100 parsecs. The VLITE program and database are hosted by NRL and includes about a decade of observations across the observable sky taken simultaneously with all Very Large Array observation programs. I present our first results at the Cool Stars 22 meeting (posters here).
My postdoctoral work at NASA Goddard and University of Maryland Baltimore County focused on the holistic characterization of exoplanet systems and flare stars. In particular, I led the TESS discovery and characterization effort of the LHS 1678 exoplanet system, a “Gaia gap” M dwarf at 20 parsecs with a likely brown dwarf and three rocky planets. All components of the system are exciting in their own right, and even more so together as a system. I am also deeply interested in understanding the M dwarf convective boundary and how the luminosity changes these stars undergo influence their exoplanets, currently with a publication on the latter near submission. I also have and continue to contribute fundamental parameters and spectral energy distribution analysis for stars in NASA’s multiwavelength flare campaign and TESS exoplanet discovery efforts (see Publications).
My PhD research involved characterizing the closest, coolest stars with a focus on their radii in order to (1) identify which stars may be among our oldest and youngest neighbors and (2) reveal previously-unseen trends by uniformly characterizing a large sample with an unprecedented range of stellar masses.
During my Ph.D. program, I served as the SMARTS Graduate Fellow and helped run the SMARTS/CTIO 0.9m telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO, imaged above with me standing next to the 0.9m). I still promote this telescope and the SMARTS/CTIO 1.5m, am open to any questions about them, and can help interested parties get telescope time.
My main areas of expertise are in observational astronomy, nearby low-mass stars, exoplanet system characterization, and low-mass star fundamental parameters.
Curriculum Vitae — Last Updated October 15th, 2025
Research Interests
Low-mass stars and exoplanets! I have a particular interest in magnetic activity, the transition from partial to full convection in M dwarfs, and anything to do with the late-M to early-L dwarfs (the smallest, faintest stars). I also enjoy investigating “weird” stellar and/or exoplanet systems, and I’ve been known to branch out to study a more massive star or two here and there. I’m open to new topics and possibilities!
Some broader topics:
- Stellar Magnetic Activity
- Low-mass Star Fundamental Properties
- Fully Convective Stars
- Star-planet Interactions
- Exoplanet System Characterization
- Nearby Stellar Populations
- Exoplanet Demographics
- Star Formation
- Exoplanet Formation and Evolution
There is a lot to learn! 🙂
Michele L. Silverstein, Ph.D. 