Briley Lewis

Biography

My name is Briley Lewis, and I’m an NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow at UCSB. I was previously an NSF GRFP fellow and PhD student at UCLA studying Astronomy & Astrophysics (graduated September 2024). I graduated from Columbia University with my B.A. in Astrophysics (class of 2018), earned my M.S. in Astronomy & Astrophysics at UCLA in 2020. I have previously worked at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC, and also at Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD.

My research interests focus on astronomical instrumentation—particularly polarimetry + high-contrast imaging for exoplanets and circumstellar disks—and observations of debris disks to learn how planets form and evolve. I primarily work with the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawai’i, but also work with Subaru Telescope, Gemini Observatory, and space-based missions like JWST and Roman. Outside of research, I am passionate about teaching, accessibility, and science communication.

Selected Publications

Lewis, Briley L., Zhang, Manxuan, et al. “NIRC2-Pol: First Light of Near-Infrared Polarimetry on Keck II.” Submitted to The Astronomical Journal.

Lewis, Briley L., Millar-Blanchaer, Maxwell, et al. “An Open-Source Data Processing Pipeline for Keck/NIRC2-Polarimetry.” SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 2026.

McIntosh, Thomas, Zhang Manxuan, Lewis, Briley L., et al. “Updating the SCExAO/CHARIS Polarimetric Calibration Following the Nasmyth Beam-Switcher Upgrade.” SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2026, Copenhagen, Denmark, Adaptive Optics Systems X; 141508C (2026). https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/14150/3104167/Updating-the-SCExAO-CHARIS-polarimetric-calibration-following-the-Nasmyth-beam/10.1117/12.3104167.full

Lewis, Briley L. “Surveying the State of Writing Education in Physics and Astronomy.” Physical Review Physics Education Research (2025): 21, 020146. https://journals.aps.org/prper/abstract/10.1103/453f-l8hy

Lewis, Briley L., Waggoner, Abygail, et al. “Improving Undergraduate Astronomy Students’ Skills with Research Literature via Accessible Summaries: An Exploratory Case Study with Astrobites-based Reading Assignments.” Physical Review Physics Education Research (2025): 21, 010124. https://journals.aps.org/prper/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.21.010124

Lewis, Briley L., Li, Yiting, et al. “SCExAO/CHARIS Spectroscopic Characterization of Cloudy L/T Transition Companion Brown Dwarf HIP 93398 B.” Astrophysical Journal (2024): 977 247. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ad90bc/meta

Lewis, Briley L., Fitzgerald, Michael P., et al. “Gemini Planet Imager Observations of a Resolved Low-Inclination Debris Disk Around HD 156623.” Astronomical Journal (2024): 168 142. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ad67e1/meta

Lewis, Briley L., Fitzgerald, Michael P., et al. “Speckle Space–Time Covariance in High-Contrast Imaging.” The Astronomical Journal 165.2 (2023): 59. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/aca761/pdf

Lewis, Briley L., et al. “Effects of Popular Science Writing Instruction on General Education Student Attitudes Towards Science: A Case Study in Astronomy.” Astronomy Education Journal (AEJ) (2023). https://astroedjournal.org/index.php/ijae/article/view/49