Astrobiology and Environmental Engineering Initiative

“There’s a lot of overlap between wastewater and astrobiology… Sounds weird, but it’s true.” – Laurie Barge

“The fate of these chemicals in an aqueous environment is relevant for both fields…All of these different projects have chemistry in common.” – Arezoo Khodayari

- Los Angeles Times, Algae here, alien life out there — Cal State L.A.-JPL partnership connects engineers to astrobiology, by Corinne Purtill  

Environmental engineering topics – such as wastewater treatment – are of great importance in southern California, and water issues attract the interest of many of our local university students to pursue careers in sanitation, waste management, and utilities. This kind of work may seem distant from astrobiology research about the origin of life or habitability of other planets. But actually, many of the chemical reactions in wastewater treatment overlap with processes of interest in astrobiology – for example the reactions of nitrogen and phosphorus species in aqueous environments, or the adsorption of dissolved ions onto naturally occurring minerals. In this ongoing initiative, Laurie Barge and Jessica Weber who lead the Origins and Habitability Lab at JPL and  Arezoo Khodayari who leads the Environmental Sustainability and Pollution Control Research Lab at Cal State LA have partnered to foster a novel transdisciplinary research area linking wastewater engineering and astrobiology. This reseach supports the creation of unique internship opportunities that build new bridges between wastewater treatment and astrobiology, aiming to inspire local students to consider PhD’s and careers in STEM.

Our student projects are designed with planetary science and wastewater treatment collaboration in mind from the start: in particular, we focus on projects that showcase the connections between environmental engineering and planetary / space science. To give several examples: (1) A student project on a planetary science topic (nitrate and phosphate adsorption onto iron minerals under Mars conditions, to study availability of bioessential elements for astrobiology) led to the development of a novel wastewater treatment technique that utilized these minerals for the removal of phosphate and nitrate from wastewater; the student is now in a planetary science Ph.D. program. (2) A student project about organic/mineral reactions with implications for origin of life, led to a publication about how organic compounds can reactivate mineral catalysts for removing phosphate pollutants from wastewater; this student is now working in water treatment industry.

Our program is unique because it draws inspiration from the field of astrobiology and planetary science – which though exciting, can seem far from students' reality – to tackle environmental engineering issues that are very real to them and their communities. Creating these joint wastewater-astrobiology research opportunities is transformative for the students, broadening their horizons of how they may apply their environmental engineering skills to future careers. Our work has also strengthened collaborations between local southern California institutions, and has provided training to research mentors regarding best practices in mentoring students with diverse career interests that are relevant to environmental industry as well as fundamental research. Whether our students ultimately end up working in planetary science or in wastewater treatment, our goal is to spark lasting excitement for scientific research and to cultivate the next generation of STEM leaders.

Media Features:

• Los Angeles Times, “Algae here, alien life out there — Cal State L.A.-JPL partnership connects engineers to astrobiology” Aug 20, 2024
• Nature Career Q&A: How Los Angeles neighbours partnered to show under-represented students the ‘unspoken rules’ to success, Dec 2024.
• Spectrum News 1: Research interns at JPL want to know if answers to Earth's environmental issues lie on Mars. Nov 27, 2024.

We are currently seeking collaborators from local institutions and funding to continue this work, please reach out if you would like to discuss further!

(L) Laurie Barge, Arezoo Khodayari, Jessica Weber.  (R) Julia Chavez (student intern), Arezoo Khodayari, Jessica Weber, Laurie Barge, Cathy Trejo (student intern)

Some projects in this initiative are detailed below.

Environmental Pollution Reduction Inspired by Planetary Science

Arezoo Khodayari (Cal State LA, PI); Laurie Barge (JPL, Co-I), Jessica Weber (JPL, Co-I), Winny Dong (Cal Poly Pomona, Co-I)

In this project we draw inspiration from the field of planetary science to tackle environmental engineering issues while creating student research opportunities and collaborations across institutions. The research experiences will enhance the confidence and motivation of students to pursue future careers in space-relevant STEM fields. This program 1) leverages lessons learned from our previous work to create a pilot program that provides independent research experiences integrated with project-oriented training and professional development; increases collaborative research projects between faculty members at Cal State LA, CPP and JPL scientists; inspires students to participate in NASA relevant research and to pursue STEM degrees; and creates a plan for a peer-to-peer mentoring and a mentor training program that will be integrated into previously successful programs. This is a pilot project funded by NASA. 

Peer Mentoring for Student Pathways in STEM

Laurie Barge (JPL, Co-PI); Arezoo Khodayari (Cal State LA, Co-PI)

We previously observed that peer interactions and being part of a peer group enhanced students’ success in our joint wastewater-astrobiology research program. This project was designed to more formally create the peer group / peer mentoring structure for students completing our research experiences. In this project we 1) conducted a pilot round of a peer-to-peer mentoring program for Cal State LA students; 2) created a plan for how this peer-to-peer mentoring program will be integrated into our previously successful programs. One outcome of this project was developing a plan to structure peer mentoring between local institutions and degree levels – for example, connecting students with one another to provide support for the community college to 4-year degree transfer, or Bachelors or Master’s degree transfer to Ph.D program. We want to expand this into a peer to peer mentoring program in environmental science / astrobiology that would formally link students at LA-area community colleges, with students in the CSU campuses, with students at University of California PhD granting institutions.

Developing Student Pipelines in Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences

Laurie Barge (JPL, Co-PI); Arezoo Khodayari (Cal State LA, Co-PI)

In this project we proposed to develop a professional development plan for students in CSULA's College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology (ECST) who are interested in career opportunities related to planetary science, to gain connections and skills that would help them get future internship opportunities related to planetary missions and/or astrobiology. In order to spark career interest in planetary science among undergraduate environmental science & engineering majors, we focused on developing ways to more strongly relate planetary science with environmental science and civil engineering (e.g., development of wastewater treatment technologies inspired by origin of life chemistry). This pilot project concluded in 2022, and led to the next phase where we explored peer-to-peer mentoring.