Faculty & Staff

Professor Benjamin Mazin

Professor Ben Mazin with the LSST primary mirror
Professor Mazin with the Rubin Observatory (LSST) primary mirror during fabrication.

Professor Mazin attended Yale University, graduating in 1997. He then attended the California Institute of Technology, graduating with a doctorate in Astrophysics in August 2004. After a short post-doc at Caltech, he went to work as a scientist at JPL in March 2005. He joined the faculty at the University of California Santa Barbara in September 2008, where he leads a lab dedicated to the development of optical/UV/X-ray Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs) and astronomical instrumentation for time and energy resolved studies.

His current research focus is building and using MKID-based instruments for detecting and characterizing nearby exoplanets. He was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 2010, and held the Worster Chair in Experimental Physics from 2017–2022.

Phone: (805) 893-3344

Office: 2015H Broida Hall

Email: bmazin [at] ucsb.edu