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Give A Gift Are you excited about the field of
Astrobiology and want to help support it? Are you one of the UW Astrobiology
Alumni, or have you in some other way benefited from the program and its work?
If so, why not give to the program to help us train the next generation of
emerging astrobiologists? As we come to a close on this fantastic
year of scientific accomplishment and academic success, now is a great time to give a gift in support of UW
Astrobiology Program! UWAB at a Glance ·
Matt Tilley graduated with a Dual-Title PhD in
Earth & Space Science and Astrobiology, and is currently working as a
postdoc with UWAB Professor David Catling to understand the environmental
conditions that might have influenced the origin of life on Earth ·
Jonathan Bapst graduated with a Dual-Title PhD in
Earth & Space Science and Astrobiology and is now working as a postdoctoral fellow at the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab ·
Nichole Barry graduated with a Graduate
Certificate in Astrobiology and her PhD in Physics and is now a postdoctoral
fellow at the University of Melbourne, working with Rachel Webster on
detections of cosmological signals. ·
Chloe Hart graduated with a Dual-Title PhD in Earth
& Space Science and Astrobiology and is now an adjunct faculty member at Urbana University as well as their Science Laboratory Manager. ·
Matthew Koehler graduated with a Dual-Title PhD in
Earth & Space Sciences and Astrobiology and is heading off to be a
postdoctoral research for Global Viral working at JPL/Caltech with UWAB
Alumnus Ken Williford on metabolic
diversity and boundaries of life on the early Earth. ·
Anna Simpson graduated with a Dual-Title PhD in
Environmental & Forestry Sciences and Astrobiology ·
Erik Goosmann graduated with a Master's of Science in
Earth & Space Sciences and a Graduate Certificate in Astrobiology ·
Aaron Brewer graduated with a Dual-Title PhD in
Earth & Space Sciences and Astrobiology ·
Dr. Jon Toner has joined the ESS department and the
Astrobiology Program as a Research Faculty member ·
Please welcome our newest students who entered the UW Astrobiology Program this fall: Astrobiology in the News ·
Dr. Eric Agol (Astro)
contributed to "The Nature of the
TRAPPIST-1 Exoplanets" publication, which uses transit-timing
variations to improve our knowledge of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary masses and
densities, which in turn tells us that these planets may be rocky but with more water
than the earth. Read
the Full Article ·
Two microbial strains, originally isolated by
Dr. Sharon Doty (SEFS) from within
wild willow plants at the Snoqualmie River, were launched into space on May
20, 2018 for an experiment on the International Space Station. Read
the Full Article ·
Brett Morris (Astro)
published a research note: "Large
Starspot Groups on HAT-P-11 in Activity Cycle 1" that was featured
in Astronomy Magazine. Read the Full
Article ·
Victoria Meadows and her local team members of the
NASA Virtual Planetary Lab were highlighted in the Autumn 2018 edition of Perspectives, the College of Arts and Sciences' newsletter.
Read the Full
Article ·
UWAB Grad Student Osazonamen Igbinosun was featured in a UW News article titled:
“Undaunted Courage”. Read
the Full Article Science Highlights ·
Andrew Lincowski
(Astro) has a new paper which was accepted recently by
the Astrophysics Journal, which was also featured in a recent UW News Article,
titled: "Evolved Climates and Observational Discriminants for the TRAPPIST-1 Planetary System." ·
Oceanography and Astrobiology students Hannah Dawson and Susan Rundell
recently worked at Palmer Station, Antarctica, sampling sea ice algae as part of a NSF
funded project. They posted blogs and other updates
on their work on twitter (@uw_young), as well as instagram (youngalgae)!! ·
UWAB and VPL Team members led or contributed to six papers in a
special issue of the Astrobiology Journal that focused on reviews and
advances in the field of exoplanet biosignatures! Drs. Meadows and Catling led two of the papers, and Josh Krissansen-Totton, Andrew Lincowski, Jake Lustig-Yaeger,
Russell Deitrick co-authored, along with UWAB alumni Eddie Schwieterman (paper lead) and Giada Arney and Shaun Domagal-Goldman. ·
Osazonamen
Igbinosun (A&A) has a new paper which was accepted recently by
Applied Spectroscopy, titled: "In
Situ Measurements of Water Content for Sub-Surface Planetary Applications,
using Near-Infrared Internal Reflection Spectroscopy (IRS) with a Multimode
Optical Fiber" ·
David
Flemming's (Astro) new paper, "On
the Lack of Circumbinary Planets Orbiting Isolated Binary Stars",
was accepted by the Astrophysical Journal (ApJ) ·
Owen Lehmer (ESS)
published a paper on "The
Productivity of Oxygenic Photosynthesis around Cool, M Dwarf Stars" ·
Jim Staley has been
working on the evolution of organisms and has recently published a paper on
Domain Cell Theory. Congratulations ·
Prof.
Victoria Meadows led a successful proposal to NASA for
continued funding for her Virtual Planetary Laboratory research group, which
focuses on exoplanet habitability and biosignatures. The team now has a further 5 years of
research funding, and indirect costs from this award help to keep the UW
Astrobiology Program afloat! ·
Prof. Victoria
Meadows
also participated in two National Academy of Sciences Committees on the
science strategies for Astrobiology and Exoplanets, and was nominated as the
Chair of NASA’s community Exoplanet Analysis Group (ExoPAG) ·
Prof. Jody Deming (Ocean) was recently awarded a
$500,000 grant from the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative for her Ocean Memory Project,
which focuses on building a thriving community of interdisciplinary researchers focused on the theme of Ocean Memory
Read the UW Press Release ·
Profs. Jonathon Toner and David
Catling
(ESS) have been awarded a new 3-year NASA Habitable Worlds grant for a project with the title,
"The Composition and Habitability of Enceladus’ Ocean".
The project uses experiments and theoretical models to understand the chemistry of Enceladus'
ocean based on measurements of erupting plumes by orbiting spacecraft. ·
UWAB
Alumnus David Smith, now at NASA
Ames Research Center, won a NASA
grant for his team to examine how spacecraft-associated bacteria could be
influenced by radiation levels expected on a long duration mission to Mars,
and if any changes pose a potential risk to astronauts. ·
Prof. David
Catling
(ESS) won an award for Outstanding Researcher in the College of the
Environment ·
Prof. Jodi
Young
(Ocean) was awarded a UW Innovation Award to develop an artificial, laboratory-scale,
sea-ice system that mimics the seasonal formation and melt of Arctic sea ice. ·
Marshall
Styczinski was awarded a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship (NESSF)
for his work on applying multi-fluid plasma models to Europa. ·
Zack Cohen (Chemistry)
was selected as an NSF Graduate Fellow through their Graduate Research Fellow
Program (GRFP) ·
Michael Diamond (Atmos) was
recognized as a member of the Husky 100 ·
Michael Kipp (ESS) was
awarded the Robert and Jenny Winglee Endowed Graduate Support Fund as well as
the Space Physics Fellowship Support Fund ·
Addien Wray (ESS) was awarded
the Richard E. Fuller Endowed Fund ·Jana Meixnerova (ESS) was
awarded the Peter Misch Fellowship ·
Steven Sholes (ESS) was
awarded the George Edward Goodspeed Geology Scholarship as well a Peter Misch
Fellowship ·
Joshua
Krissansen-Totton (ESS) received the David A. Johnston Award for Research
Excellence and the 2018 UW College of the Environment Graduate Dean’s
Medalist Award for outstanding academic achievement ·
Brett Morris
(Astro) was awarded the
2018 Astronomy Department Graduate Student Research Prize. ·
UWAB Alumna Dr Giada Arney
won the NASA Early
Career Award |
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A
Word from the Director |
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2018 Drake Award |
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“The SETI Institute’s prestigious
award is named for Dr. Frank Drake, the pioneering astronomer who founded the
modern field of experimental searches for intelligent civilizations among the
stars, and the first President of the SETI Institute’s Board of Trustees.
Previous winners of the Drake Award include Charles Townes, a Nobel Prize
winner for his work on developing masers and lasers, and William Borucki, the
Principal Investigator for NASA’s Kepler mission, which has discovered
thousands of exoplanets, including many with the possibility of sustaining
life. Meadows will be the first woman to receive the Drake Award.” Read the UW
Press Release Here or the feature in Quanta
Magazine
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The 2017 & 2018
Annual Astrobiology Workshops |
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Our 2017 workshop (held in winter quarter 2018) took us to Pasadena California to visit NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
During this workshop students learned about the astrobiology-relevant science, and state-of-the-art technology needed for
JPL's robotic exploration of the solar system and observations of exoplanets, and got to talk to scientists from a range of
backgrounds about their jobs and work at JPL. During this trip students toured labs and mission command centers, and
participated in a special "A Team"-guided brainstorming session to design a mission to Mars. Students obtained professional
development advice about the career paths that JPL scientists took from graduation to where they are now. Fun fact: Most of
them didn’t take a straight line like they expected, or even stay in the field of their dissertation!
Click here to see photographic highlights of our JPL workshop>>
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UW Astrobiology Colloquium |
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We're just now wrapping up our Autumn 2018 Colloquium series and both it and our Spring 2018 series, organized by postdoctoral Research Assistant Dr. Kim Bott, have been a great success!
For the Spring Series We had the pleasure of visiting with and
listening to lectures from several of our own students and postdocs as well
as guests: Dr Niki Parenteau (NASA Ames Research Center), Dr. Rika Anderson (Carleton College), Dr. Evgenya
Shkolnik (ASU), Dr. Carrie Albertin (U Chicago), Dr. Sarah Stewart Johnson
(Georgetown University, and Dr. Tara Djokic (UNSW)! And for our Autumn Series we were thrilled to host Dr. Carol Paty (U Oregon), Dr. Brad Foley (Penn State), Dr. Peter Gao (UC Berkeley), Dr. Rachel Osten (STScI), Dr. Cayman Unterborn (Arizona State), Dr. Noah Planavsky (Yale), Dr. Betul Kacar (U of Arizona), and Dr. Natasha Batahla (UC Santa Cruz). If
you missed one of these amazing talks you can watch them anytime on the NASA
Astrobiology Institute’s website or, starting with this Autumn's series, you can now find the presentations on our UW Astrobiology YouTube Channel!
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NASA & UWAB Celebrate the Successful Launch of TESS |
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The
2-year mission is planned to observe over 200,000 nearby stars looking for
the faint dip in brightness caused by transiting exoplanets. With the data TESS gathers on these exoplanets,
astrobiologists hope to perform detailed characterizations of the planets and
their atmospheres. Want to know more? Read this article from one of the UW
Astrobiology Program’s very own exoplanet hunting experts Dr. Eric Agol.
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Where in the World Are Our Astrobiologists?
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Ever wonder where you might go or what you might
see as an Astrobiologist? Perhaps to an Ice cave in the northernmost
reaches of Alaska? Maybe to the
highest peaks of the Andes mountains? How about Antarctica, Australia, or even prison? Well that’s where our Astrobiologists’
research and outreach have taken them these past six months. Check out these
and all of the other exciting places our faculty, students, and alumni have
been to over the last year! See
the Pictures and Read More >>
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Alumni Spotlight
The UW Astrobiology
Program has graduated over 40 alumni, who have exciting careers as faculty
members, NASA scientists, university researchers, industry specialists and
entrepreneurs. In this Newsletter we
highlight two of our alumni who are directly and significantly contributing
to the search for life on Mars! |
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Dr.
Ken Williford (ESS & Astrobiology, 2007) is currently
working at JPL where he runs the Astrobiogeochemistry Lab (or abcLab for
short) as well as serving as the Deputy Project Scientist for the upcoming
Mars 2020 rover mission! Want to know
how he got from being a UWAB grad student to where he is now? Read this interview to find out! Read
More >> |
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When
Elena’s not doing field work with her team in Iceland, she’s hard at work
studying the abundance, diversity and distribution of carbonate minerals on Mars,
contributing as a member of the Mars 2020 science team. Want
to hear more of research and how she got to where she is? Read this interview to find out! Read
More >>
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Faculty Spotlight
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Dr. Toner came
to the University of Washington to study Geophysics as a grad student and hasn’t
left since (and can you blame him?). Although he’s spent time doing research in
Antarctica and climbing just about every mountain in the Seattle area, Dr.
Toner’s greatest adventure has just begun as he and his wife just welcomed
their first child, Ellie, on March 30th of this year. Read
More >>
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Research
Rotations |
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The UW
Astrobiology Program’s Dual-Titled PhD requires students to spend one or more
quarters working on an interdisciplinary research project that is outside of the
bounds of what they would normally be doing for their research in
their home department. Recently two of
our outstanding students participated in their research rotations and
provided reports for us here!
Brett
Morris (Astronomy) joined Dr. Jody Deming’s research group as they
travelled to remote reaches of Greenland where they tested their Submersible
Holographic Astrobiology Microscope with Ultraresolution (SHAMU) to analyze
microbial motility and its qualification as a biosignature of extant
life. Brett’s largest contribution to
the project came from his development of SHAMPOO, the only free and open
source numerical holographic reconstruction toolkit in Python! Read
More >> |
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The Detectability of
Biosignatures in Anoxic Atmospheres with the James Webb Space Telescope Josh
Krissansen-Totton (ESS) opted to travel to the not so remote
reaches of Oxford, UK to join Dr. Patrick Irwin and his team to answer the
question of which atmospheric gases, besides oxygen, can reveal the presence of
life on an exoplanet. While in Oxford,
Josh spent his time developing simulations of exoplanet atmospheres and
determining how well the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) might be
able to observe and reconstruct these atmospheres. Read
More >>
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Beyond
the Science |
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THIS E-NEWSLETTER WAS SENT BY:
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