I’m a Flatiron Research Fellow at the Flatiron Institute, Center for Computational Astrophysics. Starting in January 2026, I will be a Torres Fellow at MIT.

I study (exo)planetary systems, working to discover them, characterize their architectures, and understand the processes that drive their formation and evolution. Specifically, I am a data driven dynamicist, which means that I develop techniques that fuse data analysis with dynamical theory and simulations to probe the evolution, demographics, and orbital configurations of (exo)planetary systems.

I received my PhD from Columbia University in the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics in 2025. I received my bachelor’s from MIT in Physics with a Concentration in Astronomy and with Minors in Computer Science and Comparitive Media Studies in 2018. After MIT, I spent two years working as a part of the TESS Science Team at the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. While at Columbia, I was a NASA ExoExplorer, an LSSTC Data Science Fellow, and an AAS National Osterbrock Leadership Fellow.

I am passionate about mentoring younger scientists. I’ve worked with high school students on astronomy research through the Harvard SRMP since 2018, and I served as Co-Director of the program from 2021-2023 and will again starting in 2026. I am the Founding Director (and currently Advisory Director) of the Columbia STAR (Student Training in Astronomy Research) Program, which is now in its 2nd year in 2025-2026.

Contact Me

Email: yahalomi@mit.edu