Profile
Sean Brittain
Physics and Astronomy
Assoc Prov & Dean, UG Learning
Professor
864-656-3942
Vickery Academic Learning Center 101F [Office]
Educational Background
BS, Chemical Physics, LeTourneau University, 1997
MS, Physics, Univ. of Notre Dame, 2000
PhD, Physics, Univ. of Notre Dame, 2004
Profile/About Me
I currently serve as an Associate Provost and the Dean of Undergraduate Learning. In this role, I support our faculty in the development of engaging experiential learning opportunities and innovative curricula. I also strive to ensure that our academic policies are rigorous, fair, and transparent. My scholarship focuses on the properties of gas in disks around young stars. The goal is to understand how disks evolve, identify reliable signposts of planet formation, and detect circumplanetary disks around giant planets.
Research Interests
Star and Planet formation
Astrophysical Spectroscopy
Selected Publications
Lu, C. X., Rebollido, I., Brittain, S., et al., 2026, JWST/NIRSpec Detects Warm CO Emission in the Terrestrial-planet Zone of HD 131488, The Astrophysical Journal, 998, 40, 10.3847/1538-4357/ae2797
Brittain, S. D., Kern, J. W., Meeus, G., & Oudmaijer, R. D., 2026, Evolution of the Accretion Rate of Young Intermediate-mass Stars: Implications for Disk Evolution and Planet Formation, The Astronomical Journal, 171, 4, 10.3847/1538-3881/ae1a42
Worthen, K., Chen, C. H., Brittain, S. D., et al., 2025, Fluorescently excited CO emission in the 49 Ceti debris disk spatially resolved by JWST/NIRSpec, Nature Astronomy, 9, 1680, 10.1038/s41550-025-02664-x
Pascucci, I., Beck, T. L., Cabrit, S., et al., 2025, The nested morphology of disk winds from young stars revealed by JWST/NIRSpec observations, Nature Astronomy, 9, 81, 10.1038/s41550-024-02385-7
Brittain, S. D., Kamp, I., Meeus, G., Oudmaijer, R. D., & Waters, L. B. F. M., 2023, Herbig Stars, Space Science Reviews, 219, 7, 10.1007/s11214-023-00949-z
