I am the Co-Principal Investigator of 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 interns each year, some of whom continue for several years e.g. working on a thesis project. More info here and here. 

Below are the OHL lab members currently working on projects that I supervise. There are also other OHL members who work on projects that the other Co-PI supervises.

Jessica Weber is a JPL Research Scientist and the Co-PI of the Origins and Habitability Laboratory. She has many astrobiology research interests including exploring how protein cofactors behave under early Earth conditions. She earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry from MIT and a B.S. in Chemistry from U of Chicago, and was a JPL Postdoctoral Researcher. 

Chris is an undergraduate Civil Engineering major at Cal State LA with a special interest in structural and environmental engineering. His research focuses on mineral organic chemistry related to iron redox reactions on the prebiotic Earth.

Osama is a JPL Postdoctoral Researcher studying the production of prebiotic organics in a simulated ancient hydrothermal vent system. His research focuses on origin of life and habitability in hydrotheraml vents on Earth and elsewhere.

Melih is a master's student at FU Berlin in Planetary Sciences. He earned his bachelor’s in Biology at METU (Türkiye). His OHL work focuses on Enceladus-relevant minerals and their interactions with organic precursors.

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. 

Kamil is a graduate student studying Civil Engineering at Cal State LA. She completed her undergraduate degree at Pomona College and received a B.A. in Mathematics. She is working in the OHL on experiments exploring prebiotic chemistry. 

Matt is a chemistry undergraduate student at the University of Southern California. He is studying prebiotic chemistry in Mars relevant mineral systems, and is a student collaborator with the Mars Science Laboratory team.

Seneca is a doctoral student in Materials Science at Caltech. He is working on creating catalytic scaffolds for prebiotic hydrothermal chimney simulations in the OHL.

Thora has a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Purdue University. Thora is a contamination control engineer at JPL who started her JPL career as an OHL postdoc, and is now back working with us as a research scientist. She brings her flight project and chemistry experience to the OHL to mentor students and collaborate on various research projects.

Danica is a NASA Sagan Fellow collaborating at the OHL. She is broadly interested in planetary evolution and habitability. With the OHL she will investigate nitrogen and iron redox under Mars conditions.