Dr. Males studies exoplanets (planets around stars other than our Sun), and develops techniques to characterize them with direct imaging from both the ground and with space telescopes. He is part of the Magellan Adaptive Optics system (MagAO, link:https://visao.as.arizona.edu/) instrument team, and uses MagAO to study exoplanet atmospheres. Dr. Males is the principle investigator of the NSF-funded MagAO-X project, which is developing a new "extreme" AO system for the Magellan Clay telescope. MagAO-X will deliver extremely high quality, high resolution images and spectra, and allow astronomers to image exoplanets closer to their bright host stars than ever before.