UNSW Postgraduate Research Showcase

An event organised by UNSW Science to recognises and celebrate the outstanding research of postgraduate students

The UNSW Postgraduate Research Showcase is an event that happens annually at UNSW Science where postgraduate students are given the opportunity to summarise their work in a 1-minute speech aimed at an audience with general and diverse scientific knowledge.

1-minute Thesis Presentation

In the 2023 round, Maria Pettyjohn, Robbie Ireland, and I represented the McKemmish group in the 1-minute thesis presentations.

Maria talked about molecular barcodes, Robbie focused on explaining the importance of inner electrons in quantum chemistry, and I talked about biosignature gases and aliens.

The text at the right is the speech I used for my presentation (running time 58sec).

When it comes to aliens, people usually want to know how advanced their technology is, how they communicate, and what their intentions are towards us. However, in my research, I am interested in a completely different question: what do aliens smell like?

To confirm if there is life on planets different than Earth, scientists rely on finding atmospheric gases whose concentrations cannot be explained by the laws of chemistry and geology alone - just like the high concentrations of oxygen in our atmosphere can only be explained by the presence of life on Earth.

Finding these gases requires knowing how they wiggle in the planet's atmosphere when interacting with light. These wiggleing motions create unique patterns, like fingerprints, for each gas. In my PhD, I use computers to simulate how different gases wiggle, so astronomers can use these simulations to search for signs of life in space.

Whether aliens smell a certain way because of their fundamental biological processes or because they've been working out really hard at the gym, the first way we might come into contact with aliens is through the gases they produce.

Poster presentation

Together with the 1-minute thesis presentation, students also had the opportunity to share their research in a poster format, engaging with the audience.

My poster focused on explaining how scientists use infrared spectroscopy to search for molecular signals of life (biosignatures) in exoplanet atmospheres. Starting with a brief description of how molecules vibrate when interacting with infrared radiation, my poster then delved into showcasing how we can use these molecular vibrations to unveil the identity of the chemical species in a given exoplanet atmospheres. This was done using the atmospheric spectrum of WASP-39b (a hot-Jupiter exoplanet) as an example.

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