Ben is a Pipeline Scientist for NASA's TESS mission. His work supports the management and development of the SPOC pipeline at the NASA Ames Research Center where time-series images are turned into exoplanet candidates. In his independent research time, Ben studies "young" stars and planets (ages less than 300 Myr) to better understand how stars and planets form and evolve. His work frequently involves TESS data, but includes a broad range of observing facilities from ALMA to JWST.

Ben obtained his Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and spent six years at the University of Texas at Austin as a postdoc, initially with Dr. Adam Kraus and then as a 51 Pegasi b Fellow. Ben is originally from Portland, OR and currently lives there working remotely for the SETI Institute.

Alternative contact email: ben.tofflemire@nasa.gov

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=dpakQ08AAAAJ&hl=en