Research Interests

My interests lie in the realm where microbiology, astrobiology, and the origin of life meet. I seek answers to whether life could exist on other worlds in our solar system and beyond. My research is focused on microbes that use ancient metabolisms in igneous environments analogous to those found on early Earth and other planets or moons like Mars, Enceladus, and Europa. Previously I have worked in ice cave lava tubes and deep crustal environments of the Juan de Fuca Ridge, and now I turn the lens to hydrothermal vents at hotspot volcanoes. Oceanic crust is deep, dark, and more conducive to chemosynthetic metabolisms that can harness energy from water-rock reactions rather than photosynthesis, and thus is a perfect analog for life on other rocky planets.

As a postdoc in Julie Huber’s lab at WHOI, I am working on a NASA-funded project called SUBSEA that is focused on exploring ocean world analogs on Earth with a twist. We will be operating in a scenario where the explorers are astronauts on an ocean world and we must communicate with mission control or satellites with a time lag.  My role in this project is as microbiologist/astronaut where I will be sampling at two locations analogous to ocean world submarine volcanism: Loihi seamount near Hawaii and the Teahitia seamount near Tahiti. These seamounts contain hydrothermal vents that may hold clues to life on other ocean worlds, and are thus of particular interest for future missions to these far out, frozen worlds. These ocean worlds have evidence of liquid oceans beneath the ice that are influenced by hydrothermal circulation, which may support chemosynthetic life similar to that at these hotspot volcanoes on Earth.