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. 

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.

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.

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.

Christopher is a M.S. student at CSU-LA in Civil Engineering. In the OHL he will be working on prebiotic chemistry driven by hydrothermal water-rock interactions, comparing with Enceladus’ conditions.