My research focuses on the study of extrasolar planets (planets around other stars). I study planets that pass in front of their host star as seen from Earth, these are known as transiting planets.
My research also focuses on the study of the host stars themselves. Certain types of stars, either similar in mass to the Sun, or evolved stars known as subgiants and red giants, generate and trap acoustic oscillations, generated in the noisy outer regions of the star, where convection occurs. We can study these oscillations, which are imprinted on the emitted light from the star. This is known as asteroseismology.
In many of the exoplanets I study, the planet will be destroyed by the expanding star as it evolves.

Animation of an exoplanet transit around an evolved star. The planet blocks a small portion of the light from the star periodically that can be detected at Earth (credit NASA)

How oscillations propagate inside a star, generated in outer regions, and then probe across the star (credit Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard)