Planetary Lunch (PLUNCH) at UC Santa Cruz has been ongoing for nearly 20 years and contains weekly seminars by visiting researchers. Topics span both exoplanetary and solar system science, typically with an equal split over the course of a quarter.
- Format? PLUNCH takes place every Monday from noon — 1 pm (Pacific) in the atrium of the Center for Adaptive Optics (CfAO) building, or online via Zoom. Talks are usually 40-50 minutes followed by questions.
- Ask to become a speaker? or Recommend a speaker? Great idea and welcome! Feel free to contact the organizers: Jonathan Fortney (jfortney.at.ucsc.edu), Sarah Blunt (sblunt.at.ucsc.edu), Brianna Lacy (blacy.at.ucsc.edu)
- Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the PLUNCH mailing list? Please use this link to join the Google group or contact the organizers.
- Notes for visiting speakers: parking on campus? Please get a 1-day parking permit at the parking sales office shown on this map, and then park in the UCSC Core West Parking Structure, Santa Cruz, CA 95064. The walking distance between the parking garage and CfAO is about 5 minutes.
Nominating yourself or your colleagues as a PLUNCH speaker?
We are now taking nominations of the PLUNCH speakers for the 2025 Winter & Spring quarters: January 6 – June 9, 2024. Please fill in the following Google form:
https://forms.gle/deEKg9osSogJH5sM6
Upcoming Talks
November 18, 2024
Leonardo Krapp (in person): A multifluid look at the thermodynamics of giant protoplanets: formation and detection of circumplanetary disks
November 25, 2024
Arxiv Discussion
December 2, 2024
Melanie Rowland (in person): TBD
Previous Talks
November 4, 2024
Sarah Moran (online): Complex Hazes and Mineral Clouds in the Era of JWST
October 28, 2024
Allison McCarthy (in person): The Atmospheric Structure and Variability Mechanisms on the Isolated Exoplanet Analog SIMP J0136+0933
October 21, 2024
Yinzi Xin (in person): How to be a Light DJ: looking at exoplanets by remixing light
October 14, 2024
No PLUNCH (JWST C4 deadline)
October 7, 2024
No PLUNCH (DPS conference)
September 30, 2024
Jingwen Zhang (in person): Orbital Dynamics of Planets with Outer Companions and Fourier Transform Spectroscopy for Direct Imaging Exoplanets
June 10, 2024
No PLUNCH (Finals week)
June 3, 2024
No PLUNCH (rescheduled to Fall)
May 27, 2024
No PLUNCH (Memorial Day)
May 20, 2024
No PLUNCH (rescheduled to Fall)
May 13, 2024
Luis Welbanks (online): Decoding Exoplanet Atmospheres: The Revolutionary Role of JWST
May 6, 2024
Kyle Franson (in person): Astrometric Accelerations as Dynamical Beacons: Imaging Planets and Brown Dwarfs Around Accelerating Stars
April 29, 2024
Keighley Rockcliffe (online): Lyα Lyα, These Hot Neptunes are on Fire: the bigger picture of atmospheric escape illustrated by the young AU Mic planetary system
April 22, 2024
Alison Duck (in person): Exploring Systematic Errors in the Inferred Parameters of the Transiting Planets
April 15, 2024
Samantha Hasler (in person): Addressing Challenges for Reflected Light Direct Imaging: Photometric Variation and Multi-Planet System Confusion
April 8, 2024
Emma Turtelboom (in person): Searching for Predicted Additional Planets in Multi-Planet Systems
April 1, 2024
Bowen Fan (in person): Novel climates on arid planets: tropical precipitation and surface temperature
Mar 18, 2024
No PLUNCH (LPSC conference + Finals week)
Mar 11, 2024
Briley Lewis (online): Polarimetric Observations of HD 156623’s Debris Disk with the Gemini Planet Imager (And More!)
Mar 4, 2024
No PLUNCH scheduled.
Feb 26, 2024
Nick Wogan (in person): TBD
Feb 19, 2024
No PLUNCH (Presidents’ Day)
Feb 12, 2024
Anusha Pai Asnodkar (online): Exoplanets at high-resolution with the Large Binocular Telescope
Feb 5, 2024
Ana Lobo (online): Climate Regimes Across the Habitable Zones of Dim Stars
Jan 29, 2024
Alex Madurowicz (in person): Evidence for chemical disequilibrium in the infrared spectra of 51 Eridani b
Jan 22, 2024
No PLUNCH scheduled
Jan 15, 2024
No PLUNCH (MLK Day)
Jan 8, 2024
No PLUNCH (243 AAS meeting)
Nov 27, 2023
Kielen Hoch (online): Direct Imaging Spectroscopy of Substellar Companions
Nov 20, 2023
Konstantin Gerbig (in person): New Insights into Planetesimal Formation through Diffusive Instabilities
Nov 13, 2023
Brianna Lacy and Artem Aguichine (in person): PLUNCH Journal club discussion
Nov 6, 2023
Ethan Schreyer and ZJ Zhang (in person): PLUNCH Journal club discussion
Oct 30, 2023
Quang Tran (in person): The Epoch of Giant Planet Migration: Searching for Young Planets within the Noise
Oct 23, 2023
No PLUNCH (JWST Cycle 3 deadline)
Oct 16, 2023
Cancelled
Oct 9, 2023
Sarah Blunt (in person): The Orbits of Young Exoplanets as Formation Clues
Oct 2, 2023
No PLUNCH (AAS DPS meeting)
June 12, 2023
No PLUNCH (Finals week + Gordon Research Conference)
June 5, 2023
No PLUNCH (242nd AAS)
May 29, 2023
No PLUNCH (Memorial Day)
May 22, 2023
Chris Moeckel (in person): Ammonia Distribution on Jupiter and Implications for Gas Giant Dynamics
May 15, 2023
Fei Dai (virtual): Probing Planet Formation with the Most Extreme Cases
May 8, 2023
Raissa Estrela (in person): Exoplanets Atmospheres: Trends, Evolution and Habitability
May 1, 2023
Jan Render (in person): Using isotopic signatures to trace protoplanetary disk formation & evolution
April 24, 2023
Natalie Wolfenbarger (in person): A Song of Ice and Salt: Terrestrial Constraints on the Distribution of Brine in Europa’s Ice Shell
April 17, 2023
No PLUNCH
April 10, 2023
Travis Berger (virtual): The Exoplanet Radius Gap in the Gaia Era
April 3, 2023
Ariel Graykowski (in person): Utilizing Citizen Science to Observe the Ejecta of Dimorphos after the DART Impact
March 20, 2023
Jake Turner (in person): The search for radio emission from exoplanets using low-frequency beamformed observations
March 13, 2023
No PLUNCH (Lunar and Planetary Science Conference)
March 6, 2023
Caprice Phillips (virtual): Retrieving Young Cloudy L-Dwarfs: A Nearby Planetary-Mass Companion BD+60 1417B
February 27, 2023
Laura Flagg (in person): The Ups and Downs of High-Resolution Spectroscopy for Hot Giant Planets
February 20, 2023
No PLUNCH (Presidents’ Day)
February 13, 2023
Quinn Shollenberger (in person): Applications of samarium and neodymium isotopes to nuclear forensics and the early Solar System
February 6, 2023
James Rogers (in person): Exoplanets and the Road to the Radius Gap
January 30, 2023
Artem Aguichine (in person): Retracing the fate of volatile compounds: from circumstellar disks to planetary interiors
January 23, 2023
Andrea Zorzi (in person): Impact-induced Formation of Prebiotic Molecules on Terrestrial Planets
Matthew Reinhold (in person): Habitability of Terrestrial Planets with Extreme Internal Heating
Prior to 2023
Upon request