People: Astrobiology Graduate Student Directory

Eva Stueeken
Earth and Space Sciences

I am an international graduate student from Germany with a background in ‘Geosciences and Astrophysics’ and I’m now in my first year in Earth and Space Sciences. I’m particularly interested in the physical and chemical characteristics of early Earth during the dawn of life.

Before looking for life elsewhere in the universe, it is tremendously helpful to know under which conditions living organisms managed to survive and develop on our own planet and thus to infer, which are the necessary ingredients for a habitable celestial body. Isotope fractionation, for example, can be used as a tool to constrain temperature or redox state.

Furthermore, I want to investigate how the first microorganisms shaped their environment, both on a molecular and global scale. Together, these two fields can be combined to unravel the biological history and future of other possibly habitable worlds. The graduate program in Astrobiology offers the unique possibility to interact with experts from all the different disciplines that will eventually also be important for my own research.