NASA Postdoctoral Program - The Formation and Evolution of Prebiotic Organics in Extraterrestrial Environments: Exploring the Role of Astrochemistry in the Origin of 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. This specific research opportunity focuses on understanding the abiotic emergence of organic chemical complexity at every stage of star and planet formation, from quiescent regions of dense molecular clouds through all stages of cloud collapse, protostar, disk, and planet formation, and ultimately to the materials that rain down on planets. The project executes a highly integrated program containing modeling of protoplanetary disk evolution, astrochemical laboratory experiments, and quantum chemical computations. The goal is to move beyond simply identifying particular molecules present in astronomical objects to understanding their place in the dynamics of chemical evolution of different astrophysical environments, with particular attention to the formation sites of new planetary systems and our own Solar System. Research candidates should have a background in laboratory or theoretical quantum chemistry, or experience with computer modeling.