Carnegie Fellow Evgenya Shkolnik joined DTM on 1 September, following a National Research Council postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Hawaii’s NASA Astrobiology Institute and Institute for Astronomy, and the receipt of her Ph.D. in Astronomy at the University of British Columbia in 2004. Shkolnik’s research focuses on observational studies of extrasolar planetary systems and low-mass stars (0.1—0.5 M_sun). The faintness and close proximity to Earth of low-mass stars, also known as M dwarfs, allow for higher chances of directly detecting planets and protoplanetary disks. Her studies of higher-mass stars have led to the first detection of extrasolar planetary magnetic fields that are fundamental to a planet’s formation, structure, and survival. At DTM, Shkolnik plans to continue to identify the youngest nearby M dwarfs for direct discoveries of planets and circumstellar disks, and to investigate higher-mass stars for evidence of star-planet magnetic interactions.