About Me

My name is Liton Majumdar, and I am a faculty member at India’s first interdisciplinary School of Earth and Planetary Sciences (SEPS) — a unique hub that brings together Astrophysics, Planetary Science, and Earth Science under one roof — at the National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. I lead the Exoplanets and Planetary Formation Group, where we explore the exciting frontiers of how planets are born and how they evolve.

Our research lies at the intersection of astrochemistry, planet formation, and exoplanetary atmospheres and interiors. We aim to unravel the physical and chemical processes in protoplanetary disks, trace the pathways of planet formation, and characterize the atmospheres of distant worlds. I am also actively engaged in developing and applying machine learning techniques—particularly deep learning—to study exoplanetary atmospheres. By harnessing massive datasets from missions like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), alongside high-resolution grids of theoretical models, my team and I are working to revolutionize how we characterize planets beyond our solar system. These data-driven methods are unlocking new insights into the diversity, structure, and origins of planetary atmospheres.

We have developed a modern, state-of-the-art forward and retrieval model of exoplanetary atmospheres, NEXOTRANS, in our group, which we use in conjunction with high-resolution observational data from the JWST to explore the atmospheric diversity of exoplanets ranging from gas giants to rocky Earth-like planets. In parallel, we also investigate planet formation by constraining the physical and chemical composition of protoplanetary disks using our modern, state-of-the-art disk thermochemical model, PEGASIS, which we combine with high-resolution interferometric observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). These efforts help quantify the reservoirs of volatile elements—carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen—available for incorporation into forming planets. By bridging insights from atmospheric forward models and retrievals (via JWST + NEXOTRANS framework) with disk physics and chemistry (via ALMA + PEGASIS), my research aims to uncover how the initial chemical environments of planet-forming disks shape the observable diversity of planetary atmospheres. I also serve as a Co-Investigator on a Guaranteed Time Observation (GTO) program of JWST, focused on probing the early evolution of protostellar binaries in the Perseus molecular cloud—offering critical insights into the environments where planets begin to take shape, and providing clues about how materials are inherited from early stages to later phases of planetary development.

I am also deeply involved in contributing to the development of future space- and ground-based observatories. I collaborate with NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) and ESA's Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE), as well as next-generation ground-based facilities such as the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). I currently serve on the steering committee of the HWO Science Working Group, focusing on the origin and evolution of planetary systems (HWO: SSIC Birth & Evolution). This NASA-selected team is tasked with refining the mission’s science priorities—guided by recommendations from Astro2020— and defining the scientific goals and objectives of the observatory.

In parallel, I am actively engaged with an Indian consortium as a core science team member for a proposed dedicated Indian space mission focused on the atmospheric characterization of exoplanets. This initiative reflects my strong commitment to advancing exoplanet science from India—beyond the era of JWST—by leveraging low-cost, high-impact technologies to explore the chemical and physical diversity of exoplanetary atmospheres. Through this ambitious effort to realize a flagship Indian mission, I hope to contribute significantly to our transformative understanding of how exoplanetary systems form, evolve, and potentially harbor life.