NASA Postdoctoral Program - Exobiology: Planetary Conditions for Life

The NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) offers unique research opportunities to highly-talented scientists to engage in ongoing NASA research projects at a NASA Center, NASA Headquarters, or at a NASA-affiliated research institute. These one- to three-year fellowships are competitive and are designed to advance NASA's missions in space science, Earth science, aeronautics, space operations, exploration systems, and astrobiology. Research in this area seeks to delineate the galactic and planetary conditions conducive to the origin of life. Topics of interest include the formation and stability of habitable planets, the formation of complex organic molecules in space and their delivery to planetary surfaces, models of early environments in which organic chemical synthesis could occur, the forms in which prebiotic organic matter has been preserved in planetary materials, and the range of planetary environments amenable to life. Applicants who apply for this research opportunity and are subsequently selected for an NPP award are expected to attend the Astrobiology Graduate Conference (AbGradCon) and/or the Astrobiology Science Conference (AbSciCon) using the travel funds that are conferred as part of the NPP award.