NASA Postdoctoral Program - Exobiology: Prebiotic Evolution

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 the area of prebiotic evolution seeks to delineate the galactic and planetary conditions conducive to the origin of life. Topics of interest include the formation of prebiotic organic molecules and their delivery to planetary surfaces, the forms in which prebiotic organic matter has been preserved in planetary materials, and determining what chemical systems could have served as precursors of metabolic and replicating systems on Earth and elsewhere, including alternatives to the current DNA-RNA-protein basis for life. This would also include models of early environments on the Earth in which organic chemical synthesis could occur. Applicants who are 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.