Dr. Gaidos researches the formation and evolution of planets, especially Earth-like planets that are potentially habitable.  His goal is to better understand conditions on early Earth and rocky exoplanets, and the implications for the origins and prevalence of life elsewhere.  In that context, he studies Earth- to Neptune-size exoplanets orbiting M dwarfs, their atmospheres and the influence of their stellar hosts,  He aims to link conditions in inner protoplanetary disks to the properties of planets  that arise from them, and studies planets around young stars seeking clues to their evolution over time.  Finally, he relates the meteorite record in the Solar System to the broader picture of planet formation and uses  processes in the Earth system as the basis for studying habitability. He led the team that first investigated microbial life in a subglacial lake, and is the Hawaii PI of a NASA-funded Interdisciplinary Consortium for Astrobiology Research team.  He is the recipient of several international awards: the Samuel Pufendorf Chair at Lund University,, a Fulbright Professorship  and Ida Pfeiffer Professorship at the University of Vienna, and the Gauss Prize of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences.

• ERTH/ASTR 707 Exoplanet Astronomy
• ERTH 616 Scientific Writing