Postdoctoral Associate

The Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute is seeking a Postdoctoral Associate to perform definition and development studies in support of the ORganics Exposure in Orbit experiment (OREOCUBE). The OREOCUBE astrobiology experiment is multidisciplinary and encompasses aspects of biology, chemistry, material science, engineering, and planetary science. The researcher will perform a comprehensive laboratory investigation at NASA Ames Research Center in support of an OREOCUBEin situ study of the effects of space environments on astrobiologically relevant materials in an outside exposure facility on International Space Station (ISS). OREOCUBE will expand on previous ISS exposure studies by examining the impact of chemical and physical interactions between organics and mineral interfaces on space environment photochemical processes by monitoring changes in the UV/vis/NIR spectrum of thin film samples in situ as a function of time. The postdoctoral researcher will perform a laboratory-based evaluation of the photochemical stability of a suite of amino acids, sugars, small N-heterocycles, nucleobases and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The researcher will examine photolysis reaction rates, mechanisms, and products of the organic species and characterize the influence of relevant inorganic materials (e.g. silicates, metals) on the stability, modification, and degradation of the organic molecules. The results of the laboratory experiments will be used as the basis for the selection of samples for further investigations on the OREOCUBE ISS flight experiment.

Click https://home.eease.adp.com/recruit2/?id=951701&t=1 to apply