Congratulations to Georiga Tech NPP postdoc (2018-2020) Dr. Nadia Szeinbaum, who was featured in the latest NASA Postdoctoral Program Newsletter! Read the full article here: https://npp.usra.edu/shared/program/npp/pdfs/newsletters/NPP_Newsletter_2020-04_4.1.pdf
Please join us in congratulating Alex Sessa, the first-ever recipient of a GT Astrobiology Graduate Certificate!
Read Alex’s sci comm project here.
For their semester-long science communication capstone project, fifteen Georgia Tech graduate students enrolled in the Astrobiology Graduate Certificate Program published content for Hypothesis Browser, an online tool for hypothesis-based literature searches, designed to capture the state of knowledge around the science of astrobiology and life detection.
Hypotheses were diverse in scope, ranging from planetary formation, to origins of life, to exoplanets, to icy moons, to the evolution of Earth and life. A full list of hypotheses and webpage links is below.
This project was a collaboration between Georgia Tech Astrobiology Graduate Certificate Program, Graham Lau at Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, and Andrew Pohorille at NASA Ames.
Planetary Formation
Reilly Brennan: Solar System Formation
Origins of Life
Tyler Roche: Information Polymers
Rebecca Guth-Metzler: Nucleobases
Taylor Plattner: Organics at Hydrothermal Vents
Exoplanets
Pengxiao Xu: Gaseous biosignatures on exoplanets
Worlds of the Solar System
Elizabeth Spiers: Europa ice thickness
Evolution of Earth and Life
Maria Catalina Granada: Panspermia
Zijian Li: Manganese and Oxygen Leah O’Rourke: Cretaceous–Tertiary mass extinction
GT Biochemistry Professor Loren Williams will be presenting “Voyage from the Gates of the Hadean – Origins of Life Research at Georgia Tech” at the Atlanta Science Tavern on Saturday February 22, 2020 at 7pm at Manuel’s Tavern. Details and RSVP here and below.
– This event is a production of the Atlanta Science Tavern.
– It is free and open to the public.
– Seating is on a first-come basis.
– RSVPs are not required to attend nor do they reserve seats.
– Doors open at 6:00 pm for early arrival.
– Gather for dinner by 7:00.
– The evening’s presentation gets under way around 7:45.
– Parking at Manuel’s has changed; refer to the note below for details.
__________
Loren Williams, Professor
School of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Georgia Institute of Technology
The origin of life (OOL) took place around 4 billion years ago, soon after the Earth cooled in the Hadean Eon. Water-based chemistry converted small building blocks to large polymeric molecules. Polymers have incredible properties, including ability to form assemblies. Polymers can assemble into compartments, fibers, enzymes and motors and can store and transduce information.
We have models, that are testable by experiment, to explain how increasing complexity of polymers led to simple microbial cells. For nearly 3 billion years microbes ruled the planet. Complex plants and animals are relatively recent branches on the tree of life.
The OOL can be studied from the bottom up (using chemical principles) or from the top down (mining information from biological systems). In this presentation I will discuss progress from long-running efforts at Georgia Tech that use both top-down and bottom-up approaches to unravel the OOL.
Consideration of OOL forces us to frame and confront the most profound and vexing questions in science and philosophy. The OOL tests our understanding of geological, chemical and biological principles and unsettles our sense of place in the universe.
Back row: Asem Alenaizan, Bradley Burcar, Tyler Roche
Front row: Petar Penev, Adriana Lozoya Colinas, Jennifer Glass
June 2019
Dr. Denise Okafor, currently a postdoctoral fellow at Emory University, will be starting as an assistant professor in the Penn State Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in January 2020. Dr Okafor graduated from Georgia Tech with a PhD in Biochemistry in 2015. She worked on research related to the origin of life in the Williams and Hud labs. Dr Okafor was featured as one of six GT College of Sciences alumni during the 2019 Georgia Tech Homecoming. Read more about Dr. Okafor’s research accomplishments here.
May 2019
Georgia Tech graduate students now have another way to join the hot field of astrobiology. The Graduate Certificate in Astrobiology is now an option, thanks to the effort of the vibrant astrobiology community in Georgia Tech. Read the full news story here.
March 2019
The College of Sciences is the proud host of six NPP fellows advancing NASA’s mission in astrobiology and solar system exploration. The concentration of talent testifies to Georgia Tech’s vibrant astrobiology and space science research communities. Meet the six NPP fellows whose scientific career paths are being shaped by their mentors in the College of Sciences.
Kennda Lynch is a postdoctoral researcher in Georgia Tech’s School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and has just been featured in season two of Science Matters. She studies ancient lakes on Earth that serve as stand-ins for Mars’s formerly-flooded craters. Lynch’s work helps NASA identify potential landing sites on the red planet.