This profile series introduces scientists who support projects at Caltech/IPAC while carrying out their own scientific research.
In this profile, we feature Tiffany Meshkat, who initially joined IPAC as a staff scientist in the Roman project in 2017. She is now working for both the Euclid NASA Science Center at IPAC (ENSCI) and the Roman Science Support Center (SSC) at IPAC.
1. Tell us about your path leading towards a Ph.D. degree and occupation as an astronomer?
Like a lot of astronomers, I was originally inspired by Carl Sagan’s Cosmos TV series. In elementary school we had a yearbook, and one of the questions in it was what you want to be when you are older, and my answer was “astrophysicist.” As my family lived in San Jose, we sometimes visited the Lick Observatory, which increased my enthusiasm for astronomy. My interest in space was always more science-based than about wanting to go to space myself.
After high school, I wanted to go to UC Berkeley or UCLA to stay in California. My sister was going to UCLA for graduate school, so I decided to go there as well. I started as a mathematics major at UCLA before changing to astrophysics. I was interested in stars and star formation while studying at UCLA as an undergraduate.
When I finished my undergraduate degree at UCLA, I knew I wanted to live abroad for a few years to experience living in another country, and I thought my graduate school years were the perfect opportunity. I decided to do my master’s and Ph.D. at Leiden University in the Netherlands. It was a big change for me, moving from California to somewhere so rainy and cold, but I knew I wanted to take the risk. Honestly⎯it was the best decision of my life! I loved the Netherlands. The country and the culture there are incredible, and the astronomy department (the Sterrewacht) at Leiden University was amazing. People bike everywhere. They have a different attitude toward work, as taking holidays is strongly encouraged! The department was very multicultural. And even the bad weather was sort of a novelty to me after having spent all my life in California, so the rain and cold did not really bother me. It was genuinely a wonderful experience, and I highly recommend to everyone to consider going to Leiden for a study abroad year or graduate school.
After I finished my Ph.D. at Leiden, I knew I wanted to come back to southern California to be closer to my family. I first moved to Pasadena to work at JPL as an Exoplanetary Science Initiative postdoctoral researcher. JPL is an interesting place to do a postdoc as it is not a university, so there are no students. It was a special place, as you were living and working among all the active space missions, and I was able to show my friends around JPL campus. I then started as a staff scientist at IPAC in 2017. I really love working at IPAC and I feel so lucky to have a permanent job here.
2. You left IPAC for a while. How was your time away from astronomy? What did you miss most about working as an astronomer?
I have a non-standard astronomy career as I took a three-year career break, from April 2021 to August 2024, to support a move to the UK for family reasons. I was sad to leave IPAC and especially to leave astronomy. It was an unusual time also as we were in the middle of Covid when I left, so I did not really get to enjoy IPAC to the fullest, as we were all working from home. During my time away from IPAC, I worked as a data scientist for a mental health non-profit that provided counseling support to people in urgent need. It was an interesting experience: working outside of academia, working in mental health, and being a data scientist. In some ways the work was not so different from astronomy, except the data itself was quite different. Even though I loved my colleagues and the mission of the non-profit, I really missed astronomy. I did investigate obtaining an astronomy job in UK as well, but astronomy jobs in UK are almost all faculty positions, and there is only one science center, so employment opportunities in astronomy that I liked did not really exist there. Covid also ravaged the astronomy field in UK, further cutting down the number of opportunities to get a job in astronomy, even as a faculty member.
Ever since I was a child, I knew I wanted to study the stars and planets, and I think connecting my identity with being a professional astronomer made it very difficult for me to not be one. As my son got older, he started to get more and more interested in astronomy and I felt quite sad to talk about astronomy with him in the context that "I used to be an astronomer." I knew I needed to find a way back into astronomy! The thing I missed the most was the incredible perspective one can get when we consider what we are studying, the universe⎯it can't get any bigger than that!
3. What are your current job duties at IPAC? What is your research about?
This is an artist conception of a young planet in a distant orbit from its host star. This image was created as part of the press release for the discovery of the massive planet HD 106906 b (Bailey, Meshkat, et al. 2014), on which Tiffany was co-investigator as a graduate student. Like HD 106906, the young star in this image still harbors a debris disk, remnant material from star and planet formation, interior to the planet’s orbit. Credit: Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech.
My current staff duties at IPAC include user support for the US community using the European Space Agency (ESA) space telescope Euclid. Euclid is a European Space Agency (ESA) mission with NASA participation, including the Euclid NASA Science Center at IPAC (ENSCI). Euclid’s goal is to study the geometry and nature of the dark Universe. ENSCI supports US-based investigations using Euclid data. I lead the ENSCI effort to provide documentation and tutorials on the use of public Euclid data, including images, spectra, different catalogs, etc.
I also work in community engagement for the future NASA Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The Roman Space Telescope is a NASA observatory designed to address essential questions in the areas of dark energy, exoplanets, and infrared astrophysics. IPAC, as the science support center, is responsible for several aspects of Roman functionalities, including implementing the proposal solicitation and grant management for guest investigators. I try to determine how we will engage the community, both the astronomical community and the public, in both understanding what Roman is and how you can participate in the project as an astronomer, including communicating knowledge of when the proposal calls go out and how to use the data coming out of Roman.
In both projects my role focuses around supporting the astronomy community in best utilizing these telescopes, the data from the telescopes, and communicating updates within the community.
My research is primarily focused on directly imaging and characterizing extrasolar planets that are similar to the outer planets in our Solar System. I use state-of-the-art exoplanet imaging instruments and develop image processing pipelines to study the giant planets that roam the outer edges of planetary systems. Most recently I have focused on JWST coronagraphic images searching for planets around a bright nearby star. There are potentially two previously unknown planets around it that I am currently trying to confirm. I feel incredibly privileged to be able to study such fascinating things, questions that humans have wondered about for thousands of years; for example, are we alone in the universe? We have no evidence of life outside of Earth thus far, but it seems plausible to me that we are not alone, as the whole universe is such a gigantic place!
4. Tell us a story about something funny or unusual that happened to you during your astronomy career pursuit or as a postdoc?
As a postdoc at JPL, I was fortunate to be able to take the last observations with the instrument named (for mysterious reasons) Project 1640 (P1640) on the Palomar 200-inch telescope, before a new instrument replaced it. This telescope was once the largest telescope in the world, and it is truly an incredible sight to see. For the last observations with this instrument, which operated from 2012 to 2016, we decided to obtain very deep observations towards our near neighboring star Vega, searching for planets. This was no normal observing run, however. Observing at a telescope is usually a calm affair, with a few people, some coffee and snacks to help you stay awake through the night. But on the last night of P1640, everyone who helped build and run the instrument was there, plus a camera crew who were filming a documentary about astronomers. There may have been 20 people in the observing room! To mark the occasion, we even set up a speaker system in the telescope dome and played Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, just at sunset while the telescope dome was opening. The acoustics in the telescope dome are excellent. We all did a cheer to the last night of P1640. It was a very celebratory and fun observing night! What an experience.
5. How do you manage to combine work and life at home? How does IPAC make it easier for you to do that?
IPAC is an incredibly supportive environment, flexible with school pick-up and drop-offs. As long as we get our work done, they are happy. I feel IPAC is special in this way; people here understand that work−life balance is important.
6. What would you like to still achieve as an astronomer?
So many things! I really love my research⎯searching for exoplanets through coronagraphic imaging. I have been part of teams that discovered planets, but I was never the first person to see the planet. That's what I would like to achieve⎯to be the first person (ever!) to see a previously unknown planet in a picture that I took, how exciting!
7. Do you have advice for people who want to become astronomers?
Depending on your age, academic background, etc., I recommend reaching out via email to an astronomer who does work you find interesting. I have been contacted by a few high school students who are interested in astronomy. Most academics have a webpage, and you can see what they work on. Academics are (mostly) incredibly friendly! If you send an email to someone expressing interest and asking for advice, I almost guarantee they will respond. We are incredibly fortunate to do the work we do, and I think most astronomers want to give back.
