 We are a team of UW graduate students from four different department, which are all part of the Astrobiology graduate program. Feel free to contact us if you have further questions.  Rika Anderson Oceanography "I am a biological oceanography student interested in questions related to extremophiles, the origin of life, and early evolution. I am currently working on a project to isolate viruses from hydrothermal vent communities, and am hoping to learn something about their role in lateral gene transfer in vent communities, as well as to determine if viruses can shed some light on the nature of evolution in life's earliest stages." Contact: rikander@ u.washington.edu  Michele Cash Earth and Space Sciences I am a space physicist interested in how changing solar conditions affect Earth's near-space environment. Specifically, my research addresses the question of how outflowing ions from the Earth's atmosphere get energized and trapped in the radiation belts that encircle the Earth contact: mcash@ u.washington.edu  Mark Claire Astronomy "I am interested in the interactions between biological organisms and the atmosphere. I use computer models to simulate the co-evolution of microorganisms, biogeochemical cycles, and atmospheric chemistry, mostly focusing on changing oxygen levels through Earth history. I think this is cool because searching for disequilibrium in planetary atmospheres is a potential way to search for life in the Galaxy". Contact: mclaire@ astro.washington.edu  Nick Cowan
Astronomy "I make maps of extrasolar planets based on exquisite observations from the Spitzer Space Telescope. For the time being these consist of weather maps,useful for understanding the large scale flows in the planet's atmosphere. The eventual goal is to map out the (vegetated?) continents of planets with data from, say, the Terrestrial Planet Finder."
Contact: cowan@ astro.washington.edu  Marcela Ewert Oceanography "I am interested in the microorganisms that inhabit the brine pores of sea ice, and the extracellular substances that these microorganisms produce to protect themselves from the cold and salty conditions of their environment" Contact: mewerts@ u.washington.edu  Aaron Goldman Microbiology "I am a computational biologist and work primarily on protein structure and function prediction. My principle interest is the informational relationship between sequence, structure, and function of proteins as it pertains to evolution and the origin of life." Contact: adg1000@ u.washington.edu  Darci Snowden Earth and Space Sciences " I study the interaction between Saturn's magnetosphere and Titan's dense atmosphere. Hopefully, this type of research will help us understand the habitability of planets or moons that do not have strong intrinsic magnetic fields or on Earth when its magnetic field may have been much weaker or non-existent during field reversals." Contact: dsnowden@ u.washington.edu  Sanjoy Som Earth and Space Sciences "I am a planetary scientist interested in the questions of planetary surface habitability and planetary surface evolution. I focus my work on understanding the early Earth and early Mars using tools in geophysics, geomorphology, geology and geobiology." Contact: sanjoy@ u.washington.edu  Eva Stüeken Earth and Space Sciences "I am a geochemist interested in the early evolution of Earth as a microbial habitat. My current work focuses on reconstructing Precambrian redox levels using biogenic selenium isotope fractionation recorded in ancient marine sediments." Contact: evast@ u.washington.edu |
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