Sherelyn Alejandro Merchan

My research focuses on analyzing the atmospheres of cold extrasolar worlds using observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in an effort to characterize them. Using their spectral energy distributions (SEDs), I am able to calculate fundamental parameters like luminosity and temperature.
Additionally, I develop code for the open-source package SEDkit: a collection of python modules used for constructing SEDs. Below are some projects I have been a part of.

Methane emission from a cool brown dwarf

Diversity of Cold Worlds: A Near Complete Spectral Energy Distribution for 2MASS J04151954−0935066 using JWST

You can download my CV here!

Additionally, you can find a longer list of my work using my ORCID.

Hola! My name is Sherelyn Alejandro Merchan, and I am an astrophysicist pursuing a PhD in Physics at the CUNY Grad Center. I am originally from Ecuador, but I have been living in NY for a while and completed my undergraduate studies at Hunter College in New York City. I am passionate about planetary sciences and trying to disentangle the complexities we observe in the atmospheres of extrasolar worlds. Currently, I am a member of the Brown Dwarfs in NYC (BDNYC) team at the American Museum of Natural History, where I work with a group of amazing scientists.

When I am not coding (2% of my time), you can usually find me drinking iced matcha lattes, listening to the group EXO, or at a beach somewhere with my dog Mocha. If you want to know what I am listening to, check out the music player below! Ignore the ads that pop up, I am not paying for YouTube Premium.