Email: avb5903@psu.edu
VPL Focus: Task C
Bio:
I study ion escape from Venus, which lacks an intrinsic magnetic field. Solar radiation ionizes molecules near the top of the atmosphere. The Venusian ion environment and the magnetized solar wind both generate electric fields, which can accelerate ions away from the planet. My work addresses the energy deposition associated with localized plasma wave transport across the solar wind shock region into Venus’s atmosphere.
Email: jadecheclair@uchicago.edu
VPL Focus: Task D
Bio:
I am developing statistical habitability tests we could use with future direct imaging instruments (LUVOIR and/or HabEx). In particular, I am interested in ways to test the concept of the habitable zone and its boundaries using large samples of exoplanets. Currently, I am working on how we could test for a functioning silicate-weathering feedback on habitable exoplanets. My goal is to determine the feasibility of those statistical tests, by exploring how many exoplanets we would need to observe in order to conduct them given observational constraints.
A large part of my work also focused on studying the climate of potentially habitable tidally locked planets, which may be common around M-dwarf stars. Particularily, I looked at the Snowball bifurcation on tidally-locked planets.
Email: zrcohen2@u.washington.edu
VPL Focus: Task C
Bio:
I’m interested in the role of primitive membranes during the origin of life on Earth. My research focuses on the idea that membranes could act as organizing centers for other prebiotically available biomolecules (like amino acids), and potentially catalyze their polymerization. Unlike many other theories for the origin of life, this model suggests a mechanism for the co-localization of all the major components of life, right from the earliest stages of protocell formation.
Email: mcurr@uw.edu
VPL Focus: Task A, Task E
Bio:
Email: cdavis45@uw.edu
VPL Focus: Task C, Task E
Bio:
Email: hdelgad9@uw.edu
VPL Focus:
Bio:
Email: dflemin3@uw.edu
VPL Focus: Task C
Bio:
As a member of the UW eScience Institute’s Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) in Big Data and Data Science, I work on dealing with the large parameter space required to accurately model exoplanet systems using the code VPLANET (see Barnes et al. 2016). The massive parameter space afforded by VPLANET’s inclusion of numerous physical modules ranging from atmospheric escape to orbital dynamics necessitates the use machine learning techniques to analyze the output of a large number of simulations and to intelligently traverse this parameter space. I am particularly interested in the application of machine learning techniques to wrangle this large parameter space to draw inferences about exoplanet habitability and understand the underlying physical processes that influence habitability.
Email: rodolfog@uw.edu
VPL Focus: Task C
Bio:
Email: samroseg@uw.edu
VPL Focus: Task E
Bio:
I am a PhD student in Astronomy and Astrobiology at the University of Washington. As a member of the Virtual Planetary Laboratory, I am exploring how we will interpret spectral observations of terrestrial exoplanets with future instruments. In preparation for upcoming transmission or direct imaging missions, I am particularly interested in developing robust frameworks for interpreting the detection of biosignature gases.
Email: suissa@uw.edu
VPL Focus:
Bio:
Email: wogan@uw.edu
VPL Focus: Task B, Task D
Bio:
Nick is a graduate of the University of Oregon where he majored in Physics
His past research has focused on Electromagnetic geophysics, Seismology, and Geodynamics and his future research interests include thermodynamics and disequilibrium biosignatures
In his free time Nick enjoys climbing mountains and then skiing down them! And you might find this interesting, but Nick has never tasted Pepsi or Coke.
Email: Amber_Young@nau.edu
VPL Focus: Task A
Bio:
As a Master’s student at Fisk, I studied the potential biosignatures of the Martian atmosphere using computational modeling techniques. I completed the Master’s Phase of the Bridge Program in June 2019, and am now a graduate research assistant at Northern Arizona University where I study the potential biosignatures of exoplanets using atmospheric modeling.