David Charbonneau

David Brian Charbonneau is a professor of Astronomy at Harvard University. His research focuses on the development of novel techniques for the detection and characterization of exoplanets orbiting nearby, Sun-like stars.

Early life and education David Charbonneau was born in Ottawa, Ontario. He is the son of Brian Charbonneau, a geologist, and Sylvia Charbonneau, a physician.

When he was around 12 years old, he visited Pacific Rim National Park with his family, where he spent time playing in tide pools and observing the variety of organisms that lived in the intertidal zone. He credits this experience with sparking an early interest in science. When he was in high school, he read Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time. Intrigued by the ideas in the book, he decided to pursue studies in physics and astronomy, rather than biology.

In 2004, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific awarded him the Robert J. Trumpler Award for his graduate thesis entitled Shadows and Reflections of Extrasolar Planets.

Career Charbonneau was a R. A. Millikan Postdoctoral Scholar in Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology from 2001 until 2004. He returned to Harvard in 2004 where he joined the faculty of the Department of Astronomy. Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow (2006–2008) National Science Foundation's Alan T. Waterman Award (2009) Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in the Physical Sciences (2012) Blavatnik Award (2016) Kavli Prize in Astrophysics (2024)

Selected publications

Personal life Charbonneau is married to Margaret Bourdeaux, a global health advocate and physician, with whom he has four daughters. His sister-in-law is Carolyn Bourdeaux.