Lisa Prato studies young binary stars, their formation and potential for planet formation, and their utility for the determination of fundamental young star properties. She has also been searching for the youngest exoplanets for over 20 years in order to understand their origins. Prato uses infrared and optical spectroscopy, high angular resolution imaging, and time domain observations in her research at a number of facilities from Keck Observatory to the 2.7-meter Harlan J. Smith telescope at McDonald Observatory to TESS to the NASA IRTF.
Prato attended the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where she completed undergraduate degrees in Astronomy and in English and discovered the world of scientific research. Prato later moved to Colombia, South America, and worked for 3 years as a professor in the Department of Physics at the Universidad Industrial de Santander in the city of Bucaramanga, teaching classes in astronomy and astrophysics and working toward a masters degree in Physics. Prato returned to the US to complete a PhD in Astronomy at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, followed by two postdoctoral positions at UCLA with Drs. Andrea Ghez and Ian McLean. Prato is an Adjunct Professor at Rice University, has taught at Physics courses and special topics seminars at Northern Arizona University, and was a Tenured Astronomer on the science faculty at Lowell Observatory for over 21 years. She works with postdocs, undergraduates, interns, and gradate students on young binary stars and planet formation.