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Howard Chen

Assistant Professor | COES: Department of Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences

Contact Information

Expertise

Extrasolar Planets, Numerical Modeling, Atmospheric Evolution, Habitability

Personal Overview

Howard Chen is an Assistant Professor of Planetary Sciences at Florida Institute of Technology. Thematically, his research centers on cornerstone questions such as "where we do come from" and "who else is out there?".

The majority of his research involves computer simulations of exoplanet atmospheres in the context of atmospheric evolution, dynamics, and chemistry. He has used a wide heritage of analytical and numerical models to pertinant to volatile accretion, hydrodynamic escape, and global chemistry-climate systems to study early Earth, Earth-like habitable zone planets, and sub-Neptune sized planets orbiting others stars, aka "exoplanets".

He has correctly predicted the existence of a “valley” in the radius distribution of Kepler planets and has made several other predictions pending verification such as a divergent climate pathway for outer edge habitable zone worlds in compact multiplanet systems, the origin of superchrondritic carbon to nitrogen ratios in bulk silicate Earth, a prominent water vapor moist greenhouse spectral feature on tidally-locked exoplanets around M-dwarfs, and the prevalence of “habitable evaporated cores” close to the galactic center.