NASA Postdoctoral Program: Volatiles: From Giant Impacts to Icy Shadows

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 opportunity focuses on understanding the processes responsible for the formation and evolution of different planetary bodies, with emphasis on highly volatile elements (H, C, N, S, Cl) in planetary materials and their synthetic analogs. The research team, consisting of planetary scientists, chemists, and engineers, is currently focused on the formation and evolution of rocky bodies such as the Moon and Mars, and projects where research and curation overlap. Projects involve analysis of astromaterials (Apollo samples, meteorites) and synthetic analog samples using various analytical techniques including SIMS, CRDS, AMS, FTIR spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry. Candidates are also sought for projects related to thermochemical modeling and experimental exploration of ice/rock interactions relevant to Artemis sample return from the Moon, and the development of robotic sample-handling at ambient and cryogenic temperatures for Artemis sample return curation activities.