Meet the Lab
Our team members come from institutions in the LA area, out of state, and even internationally. Some come in as undergraduate or graduate student interns and work for a summer up to several years. Some team members are mentor funded; some come in with their own funding through fellowships, student awards, or external grants. Some work with us as visiting researchers or remotely. We also regularly collaborate with many excellent researchers and colleagues both from inside JPL and from institutions around the world.
Students, Postdocs, Researchers
Bonnie Teece
Bonnie is a JPL postdoc in the OHL, working on the InVADER hydrothermal vent project. Bonnie has a B.A in English Literature and Russian Studies and a B.Sc in Museum Studies from Macquarie University in Australia. She then completed a Master of Research with high distinction in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Macquarie University, and her PhD in Organic Geochemistry and Astrobiology at The Australian Centre for Astrobiology at the University of New South Wales. Bonnie’s PhD research focused on the reliability of organic biosignatures, primarily in hydrothermal environments.
Katherine Dzurilla
Katherine Dzurilla is a JPL postdoc in the OHL currently working on astrobiology on ocean worlds. She completed her B.S. in Biochemistry and B.S. in Physics from Oklahoma State University and went on to get her Ph.D. in Space and Planetary Sciences from the University of Arkansas.
Matt Luna
Matt is currently a Biochemistry undergraduate student at the University of Southern California. He is working with the OHL to analyze the effects of Mars minerals on potential prebiotic chemistry reactions in Gale Crater, and how current missions might be able to observe signs of these past organic processes. He is a student collaborator with the Mars Science Laboratory team.
Seneca Velling
Seneca is a doctoral student in Materials Science from the Division of Engineering and Applied Science (EAS) at Caltech. He is working on catalytic scaffolds and flow through reactors for prebiotic hydrothermal chimney growth & materials characterization in the OHL. He received his Honours B.Sc. in Materials and Nanoscience from the University of Waterloo (2019) focused on solid-state and biomaterials. He earned his M.Sc. in Materials Science from Caltech (2023) focused on metallo-polyelectrolytes, thermochemistry, and architected electrodes.
Osama Alian
Osama is a JPL Postdoctoral Fellow at the OHL studying the production of key compounds critical for the origin of life in a simulated ancient hydrothermal system. He comes to JPL from Michigan State University’s Microbiology, Genetics and Immunology PhD program where his dissertation research focused on the organization of microbial communities at the mineral-water interface of the Lost City hydrothermal field, and mapping the microenvironment within which they reside using an array of analytical tools and methods. He completed his undergraduate studies at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan with two bachelors in Biological Sciences and Art History.
Christian Mendoza
Christian is an undergraduate student at California State University - Los Angeles. He is pursuing a degree in Civil Engineering with a special interest in Structural and Environmental engineering. His work in the OHL will focus on mineral organic chemistry related to iron redox reactions and its application to prebiotic earth.
Thora Maltais
Thora Maltais received her PhD in Chemistry from Purdue University and has been a Contamination Control Engineer at JPL since fall 2017. She has worked on multiple flight projects at JPL, including Mars Perseverance Rover, Europa Clipper, and GRACE-C. Thora also started her JPL career as a postdoc in the OHL (before it was incorporated into the OHL), and is now back as a research scientist. She will bring her flight project and chemistry experience to the OHL to mentor students and collaborate with OHL members on current and future research projects.
Danica Adams
Danica is a NASA Sagan Fellow at Harvard University collaborating at OHL. She is primarily a photochemist, with broad interest in planetary evolution and habitability. At OHL, she will investigate loss rates of aqueous nitrate to iron with application to explain abundances of NO-volatiles from Mars Science Laboratory measurements.
Keira Okada
Keira is a fourth-year undergraduate student studying Physiological Science at UCLA. In the Nava lab at UCLA, Keira studies transition-metal substitution within active sites of enzymes such as carbonic anhydrase. At JPL, she will focus on origin of metabolism research with NAD cofactors also utilizing iron sulfide compounds.
Jesus Cortes
Jesus is an undergraduate student at Colby College, studying Biochemistry with a focus on Chemistry. As an undergraduate student at Colby, Jesus conducts research on novel methods of synthesizing carbenes from phenanthrene-based precursors. In the OHL, Jesus will focus on measuring the conductivity of Europa-relevant salt solutions, at varying temperatures and pressures.
Melih Çakar
Melih is a master’s student at FU Berlin in Planetary Sciences. He earned his bachelor’s in Biology at METU (Türkiye). During his undergraduate studies, he studied how microorganisms can thrive in challenging conditions and evolutionary mechanisms. At OHL, he will focus on Enceladus-relevant minerals and their interactions with organic precursors.
Kamil English
Kamil is a graduate student studying Civil Engineering at California State University - Los Angeles. 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 on Enceladus.
Alumni
Dennise Valadez
Dennise worked in the OHL for her Master’s thesis in Physics at Cal State LA; her research focused on redox reactions of iron and sulfur in Ceres analog minerals, and studying prebiotic chemistry of cysteine in early Earth conditions. She is now a GEM Fellow at General Atomics and a Ph.D. student in Physics at Purdue University.
Eduardo Martinez
Eduardo worked in the OHL for his Master’s thesis in Civil Engineering at Cal State LA; his research focused on abiotic nutrient and organic cycling facilitated by iron minerals. After the OHL Eduardo was a 2023 California Sea Grant State Fellow, and he is currently a Ph.D. student in Geosciences at University of Nevada Las Vegas.
Jazmine Robledo
Jazmine Robledo is an undergraduate at the University of California Riverside studying Physics. She is interested in the applications of machine learning for planetary science. She worked with the OHL on developing a web application and machine learning models to facilitate the analysis of publicly available oceanographic datasets in an effort to elucidate how deep-sea hydrothermal vents influence biological activity at the ocean's surface.
Billal Zayat
Billal worked with the OHL on fabricating and electrochemically characterizing synthetic mineral geo-electrodes for detecting life on ocean worlds, while he was a Ph.D. student in Chemistry at the University of Southern California. He is now working in the electrochemical industry.
Laura Rodriguez
Laura Rodriguez was a postdoc in the OHL who worked on hydrothermal vent geochemistry, phosphorus chemistry in planetary systems, and is part of the INVADER vent exploration project. Laura her B.S. in Geochemistry at Rice University before obtaining her Ph.D. in Geosciences and Astrobiology at Penn State. Laura is now a Research Scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute.
Erika Flores
Erika worked with the OHL on prebiotic organic synthesis and phosphorus absorption in hydrothermal systems, as part of her Master’s thesis in Environmental Engineering at CSU Los Angeles. She also has a Bachelor's in Chemical Engineering from Cal Poly Pomona. Erika currently works for LA County.
(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Kim Orr)
Rachel Sheppard
Rachel worked on redox gradients in the martian subsurface as a postdoc in the OHL, and is a member of the MSL science team. She completed her BA in Earth Science at Columbia University studying organic molecules in fault rocks and completed her PhD in Earth & Planetary Science at Brown University studying how water-bearing minerals record aqueous conditions on Earth and Mars. Rachel is now a Research Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute.
Sarah Lamm
Sarah worked with the OHL as a student intern, on deconvoluting the geochemical signatures of metastable minerals relevant for life in Mars and ocean floor environments using LIBS, Raman, and IR spectroscopy. She is currently a PhD student in Geology at the University of Kansas.
Medha Prakash
Medha worked with the OHL on carbon reduction reactions in planetary environments, relating to understanding methane on Mars and prebiotic chemistry in early Earth settings. She is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Texas Austin Jackson School of Geosciences.
Jonathan Major
Jonathan worked with us for his M.S. degree on simulating phosphorus chemistry in iron and manganese mineral systems on Mars and ocean worlds, and evaluating habitability in redox active systems. He is currently a Ph.D. student in the Pasek lab at University of South Florida.
Ninos Hermis
Ninos worked with the OHL on experiments to simulate prebiotic chemistry in hydrothermal vents on the early Earth, and on studying electrochemistry of ocean world analog minerals. He developed a new apparatus to simulate temperature gradients in lab-grown hydrothermal chimneys.
Michelle Hooks
Michelle (STEM Teacher and Researcher fellow; Biology and Education, USC) worked with us on the effects of organic molecules on iron-silicate and iron-hydroxide chemical garden systems, with applications for origin of life and looking for biosignatures on other worlds. She is now working at NASA Johnson Space Center.
Hiroki Nishimura
Hiroki is completing his degree in Marine Science at Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology (TUMSAT). He was a visiting researcher in our lab under the Japan Public-Private Partnership Student Study Abroad Program, and continues to work with us on the effect of amino acids on phosphorus adsorption on iron minerals in ocean systems.
Sarah Crucilla
Sarah (geology, Caltech) worked with us on testing how protein cofactors behave in early Earth conditions, and studying how extremophiles live in radiation-intensive environments. She is currently a research assistant at Harvard.
Jemma Dickson
Jemma (chemistry and marine science, College of the Atlantic) worked with us on incorporating microbes into hydrothermal chimney experiments under the Maine Space Grant program.
Jason Pagano
Dr. Jason Pagano is a professor of Chemistry at Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan specializing in silicate chemical garden systems. He conducted his 2018-2019 sabbatical at JPL with our team, working on chemical gardens of iron hydroxide and iron silicate, and the effects of organics on precipitation.
Preston Tasoff
Preston worked with the OHL on validating and measuring DNA preserved in extreme environments, and studying biomarker preservation in harsh UV environments, while he was a microbiology undergraduate student at Washington University, St. Louis. He is now a Ph.D. student at UC Berkeley Environmental Science Management and Policy department.
Tully Mahr
Tully is a graduate student currently completing her Master of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Melbourne in Australia, and has her B.Sc in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry from the Australian National University. Tully worked with the OHL to conduct mineralogical analysis of compositional gradients in hydrothermal chimneys.
Gregory Zaugg
Gregory worked with the OHL on iron-sulfide hydrothermal chimney growth and characterization while he was a Master's Student in Nanosciences at the University of Basel, Switzerland. In his Master's Degree he focused on Molecular Microbiology, Biophysics, and Engineering.
Julia Chavez
Julia worked with the OHL to study saponite precipitates: their use in carbon dioxide sequestration and their relevance to habitable environments on early Earth and early Mars. She completed her M.S. thesis in Environmental Engineering at CSU Los Angeles, and has a Bachelor’s in Mathematics from Lewis & Clark College. She currently works in the environmental engineering industry.
Nancy Carman
Nancy is a doctoral student studying Geosciences in the Geosciences Department at UW-Milwaukee. She has her B.S. in Physics from UC Merced, B.S. & 2 M.S. in Geosciences from UW-Milwaukee and UNLV, where she researched fluid flow and deformation in shear zones in metasedimentary rocks, and worked with the OHL studying Fe/Mg chimneys as early Earth and Mars lab analogs. Most recently, she worked with the OHL to investigate the reaction pathway that could potentially form abiotic aromatic acids such as tryptophan, which could have implications for prebiotic chemistry in the plumes of Enceladus.
Jordan Chastain
Jordan is a doctoral student studying Geobiology in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at Caltech. She has her B.S. in Chemical Biology from UC Berkeley, where she researched microbial metabolism. She worked with the OHL to investigate nitrogen and iron chemistry in ancient Mars environments and the impacts of these processes on organic and prebiotic chemistry.
Sophia Riazi-Sekowski
Sophia is a Chemistry / Environmental Science undergraduate student and Pulver Science Scholar from Colby College with previous experience in analytical environmental chemistry and biogeochemistry. She worked with the OHL to study quinones solubility in organic solvents and exploring aromatic compounds in the electron transport chain and their prebiotic significance.
Kamilah Bundang
Kamilah is a science and mathematics undergraduate student at College of the Atlantic. During her undergraduate career, she conducted research investigating sub-nucleolar liquid-liquid phase separation and its applications to understanding neurodegenerative disease and cancer by utilizing CRISPR and other experimental approaches. As a Maine Space Grant intern in the OHL, her work focused on the redox reactions of benzoquinone and hydroquinone with ferrous compounds and their applications to prebiotic chemistry.
Antonio López García
Antonio is doing his PhD thesis in the field of Prebiotic Chemistry at Centro de Astrobiología (CAB, CSIC-INTA), in Madrid (Spain), where he carries out laboratory simulation and photochemistry experiments. He worked with the OHL on Enceladus prebiotic chemistry and phosphorus chemistry.
Ellen Czaplinski
Ellen was a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow who worked in the OHL investigating the stability and reactivity of organic molecules under Ceres-relevant conditions. She is currently a Research Engineer at Honeybee Robotics.
John Aguilera
John was a JPL Student Teacher and Researcher (STAR) intern in the OHL, where he performed research regarding heterocyclic electron transport chains along with how updated pedagogies in the field of Astrobiology can be applied to traditional chemistry classroom practices.
Kiara Garduno Perez
Kiara G. is a Biochemistry graduate student at University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Her research spans protocell formation, gamma-ray burst observations, and biosignature analysis. At JPL, she modeled Gale Crater’s ancient hydrology to backtrace modern geochemical products to past lake environments.
Cathy Trejo
Cathy worked in the OHL for her Master’s thesis in Civil Engineering at Cal State LA. Her thesis work focused on assessing the fate and transport of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in hydrothermal vent systems.
Theresa (Tess) Marlin
Tess worked in the OHL during her Ph.D. in Geological and Planetary Sciences at Caltech. In the OHL she studied prebiotic chemistry via chemical gardens, which are analogues of hydrothermal vents. She also studied Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, via laboratory science and observational astronomy.