I co-lead the Origins and Habitability Laboratory at JPL. Visit the lab's website for more details about our research, lab news, and facilities. 

Interested in an internship? I take several summer interns each year, but also prefer year-round interns who work part time while going to school. I typically fill my summer intern positions in the fall (October - November), and it is not unusual for people to contact me more than a year in advance. If interested, email me and tell me about your research interests, and which of my funded projects interests you and why. 

Below are the OHL lab members currently working on projects that I supervise. 

Nancy is a Geosciences PhD student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She works on determining the degree of diagenesis on Mars, specifically looking at if there are S-containing organic minerals from Vera Rubin Ridge and Glen Torridon, mainly focusing on Mn sulfides. She is simulating the growth of hydrothermal chimneys with conditions analogous to the Strytan hydrothermal field in Iceland, an analog to hydrothermal environments on early Mars.

Julia is working on her Master's in Environmental Engineering at CSU Los Angeles. She has a Bachelor’s in Mathematics from Lewis & Clark College. She is simulating hydrothermal vents in the lab. In particular, she will study saponite precipitates: their use in carbon dioxide sequestration and their relevance to habitable environments on early Earth and early Mars.

Dennise is currently pursuing her MS in Physics from CSU Los Angeles. She has a BS in Physics and Chicano/a studies from UCLA. Her research interests include the search for life outside of Earth as well as better understanding the origins of life here on Earth. She is working with the OHL on investigating chemical pathways in ocean world analog systems to resolve possible indicators of abiotic organic chemistry and habitability on Ceres and Enceladus.

Bonnie is a JPL Postdoctoral Researcher working on the InVADER vent exploration project. Her research focuses on organic geochemistry in hydrothermal systems with applications to ocean worlds, Mars, and life detection.

Katherine is a JPL Postdoctoral Researcher working on astrobiology on ocean worlds, including prebiotic chemistry and phosphorus chemistry under Enceladus conditions. 

Tess is a second year biology Ph.D. student at Caltech. She is working on experiments to simulate the origin of metabolism, particularly reactions of simple organic molecules with minerals in ocean world analog environments, and is interested in possible metabolisms that might exist on ocean worlds.

Jessica Weber earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry from MIT and a B.S. in Chemistry from U of Chicago, and was a JPL Postdoctoral Researcher. Jessica is a JPL Research Scientist involved in various astrobiology research projects, including exploring how protein cofactors behave under early Earth conditions.

Matt is a biochemistry undergraduate student at Citrus College. He is studying prebiotic chemistry in Mars relevant mineral systems, and is a student collaboratory with the Mars Science Laboratory team.