Nathaniel Kerman

Research

My research spans observational astronomy, instrumentation, and scientific software — with a current focus on understanding how substellar objects form.

Planetary Mass Object Formation

Current

UMass Amherst

Using JWST near- and mid-infrared observations combined with ALMA millimeter data to study the formation and early evolution of substellar companions and free-floating planetary mass objects. Collaborates with advisors Dr. Kim Ward-Duong (Smith College) and Dr. Kate Follette (Amherst College).

JWST NIRCam / NIRSpec / MIRIALMAPython

IMAP Lo / Hi / Ultra Instruments

2024–2025

LASP, CU Boulder

Contributed to the pipeline development for the IMAP-Lo / IMAP-Hi / IMAP-Ultra instruments aboard NASA's Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission. Built the code to produce all-sky maps of the heliospheric energetic neutral atom (ENA) flux.

Data pipeline developmentSolar and heliospheric physicsIMAPPython

CLARREO Instrument

2022–2024

LASP, CU Boulder

Led development of the scientific algorithm pipeline for the CLARREO instrument: a NASA Earth and Climate science instrument which is planned for launch to the International Space Station.

Data pipeline developmentEarth ScienceClimate ScienceCLARREOPython

COS Lifetime Position 6 Calibration

2020–2022

STScI

Contributed to calibration efforts for Hubble's Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS). Led the effort to characterize the spectral and spatial resolution of the G160M grating at a new detector lifetime position and authored multiple Instrument Science Reports documenting the results.

Hubble / COSPython

EXPRES Spectrometer Characterization

2019–2020

Yale University

Improved the wavelength calibration of the EXtreme PREcision Spectrometer (EXPRES) to allow for lower-mass exoplanet detection.

EXPRESPython