Events
Events at the Center for Planetary Systems Habitability bridge disciplines and bring together scientists and researchers from across campus.
CPSH Seminar Series
Location: PMA 15.216B, Physics, Math and Astronomy Bldg.
UT Austin, Department of Astronomy
2515 Speedway, Stop C1400
Austin, Texas 78712-1205
Online: To join online contact Brandon Jones, or subscribe to our seminar mailing list.
Recordings: Find past talks at our YouTube channel @UTexasPlanetary
Upcoming Events
Monday, October 14, 2024 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Pondering Our Place in the Universe
Michael L. Wong
NHFP Sagan Postdoctoral Fellow
Carnegie Institution for Science
External Events
No event found!
Past Events
Monday, September 23, 2024 1:00pm – 2:00pm
On the design of In-Space Manufacturable Large, Lightweight, and High-Precision Structures
Othman Oudghiri-Idrissi
Assistant Professor
The University of Texas at Austin
Monday, September 16, 2024 1:00pm – 2:00pm
CPSH General Meeting
Hosts: Sean Gulick and Brett Baker
Monday, September 9, 2024 11:00am – 12:00pm
Why Accessible Ice on Mars Is All The Rage
Jack Holt
Professor
University of Arizona
Graduate Student Short Talks
SEMINAR SERIES | Monday, April 29, 2024 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Talk 1: The Climate of Early Mars: Global Groundwater Model Based Constraints on Climatic Optimals
Eric Hiatt
Graduate Research Assistant
University of Texas Institute for Geophysics, UT Jackson School of Geosciences
Talk 2: Protosolar D/H abundance in the coldest brown dwarf
Melanie Rowland
Graduate Research Assistant & NASA FINESST Fellow
Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin
Talk 3: Directly Detecting Substellar Companions Using Autoencoder Neural Networks
Trevor Wolf
Graduate Research Assistant
Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics & Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin
Monday, April 22, 2024 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Hunting for Organics on Planetary Bodies
Laura Rodriguez
Staff Scientist
Lunar and Planetary Institute
Monday, March 25, 2024 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Exploring Europa, Jupiter’s Ocean World: A View from Earth (and Mars)
Donald Blankenship
Research Professor
University of Texas Institute for Geophysics
Monday, February 26, 2024 1:00pm – 2:00pm
A matter of time: linking observations and models to test the temporal limits of exoplanet habitability
Cayman Unterborn
Senior Research Scientist
Southwest Research Institute (SwRI)
Friday, February 16, 2024 12:15pm – 4:15pm
Research Retreat
Workshop: 12:15 — 4:15 p.m.
Happy hour: 4:15 — 5:30 p.m.
We invite members and friends of the Center for Planetary Systems Habitability to join our 2024 research retreat!
Location: AT&T Hotel & Conference Center
Monday, February 12, 2024 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Is there P in Enceladus’s ocean?
Christopher Glein
Lead Scientist, Space Science
Southwest Research Institute
Monday, January 22, 2024 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Earth’s Ancient Biosphere: An Analogue For Life In the Universe
Andy Czaja
Associate Professor
Department of Geosciences, University of Cincinnati
Monday, November 24, 2023 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Searching for Mars’ missing carbonates
Eva L. Scheller
Heising-Simons Postdoctoral Fellow
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Monday, November 13, 2023 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Icy ocean world interiors—techniques and implications
Doug Hemingway
Assistant Research Professor
University of Texas Institute for Geophysics
Recording available on request.
Graduate Student Short Talks
Monday, October 23, 2023 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Watch the recorded talks.
Talk 1: Simulating Hydrogen in the Tiger Stripes of Enceladus
Melina Zaharias
Graduate Student
Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, UT Cockrell School of Engineering
Talk 2: Planetary moon tour trajectory planning
Chun-Yi Wu
Graduate Student
Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, UT Cockrell School of Engineering
Talk 3: Impact generated melt foundering on icy ocean worlds
Mohammad Afzal Shadab
Graduate Student
UT Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences
(note: Afzal’s talk was not recorded)
Monday, October 16, 2023 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Special Seminar
Dos and Don’ts of NASA Proposals
Max Bernstein
SMD Lead for Research
NASA Headquarters, Planetary Science Division
Watch the recorded talk.
Monday, October 9, 2023 1:00pm – 2:00pm
A radial velocity analysis technique to determine planetary interiors
Lia Marta Bernabò
PhD student
German Aerospace Center (DLR) Institute of Planetary Research
Watch the recorded talk.
Monday, September 25, 2023 1:00pm – 2:00pm
From Eukaryogenesis to Membrane Origins: using microbial metabolism as fossil record of early life
Valerie De Anda
Provost’s Early Career Fellow and a Research Associate
Marine Science Institute, The University of Texas at Austin
Watch the recorded talk.
Monday, September 11, 2023 1:00pm – 2:00pm
The upcoming hunt for exoplanets in the habitable zone: Advances in the detection of exoplanets in the context of the upcoming ESA space mission PLATO
Sascha Grziwa
Research Associate
Rhenish Institute for Environmental Research, Department of Planetary Research, University of Cologne, Germany
Watch the recorded talk.
Two Talk Special!
April 24, 2023 1:00pm – 2:00pm
How old is the Ordovician-Silurian Boundary at Dob’s Linn, Scotland? Integrating LA-ICP-MS and CA-ID-TIMS U-Pb zircon dates
Hector Garza
Doctoral Degree Student
Jackson School of Geosciences Department of Geological Sciences
Resilience of marine infaunal communities under a short-lived environmental perturbation: cause of the shelf anoxia and origin of intrashelf basins
Charlie Zheng
Doctoral Degree Student
Jackson School of Geosciences Department of Geological Sciences
Watch the recorded talks.
Monday, April 10, 2023 1:00pm – 2:00pm
The subsurface habitability of Mars
Charles Cockell
Professor of Astrobiology, UK Center for Astrobiology
University of Edinburgh
Watch the recorded talk.
Two Talk Special!
March 27, 2023 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Modeling the Evolution of Terrestrial Planet Atmospheres Through Outgassing and Escape
Katie Teixeira
Graduate Research Assistant
UT College of Natural Sciences
Permeability Limited Compaction and (De)Serpentinization of Ceres
Jialong Ren
Graduate Student
UT Jackson School of Geosciences
Watch the recorded talks.
February 27, 2023 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Gas Jets and Exospheric Dynamics at Active Icy Worlds
Ben Teolis
Planetary Scientist
Southwest Research Institute
Watch the recorded talk.
February 13, 2023 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Potential importance of diffuse hydrothermal fluid seepage in supporting life along deep sea fracture zones
Mark Lever
Associate Professor
UT Marine Science Institute
Watch the recorded talk.
January 23, 2023 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Beyond Mass Extinction: Hydrothermal Habitats at the Chicxulub and Ries Impact Structures
Sean Gulick
Co-Director, UT Center for Planetary Systems Habitability
Research Professor, University of Texas Institute for Geophysics, Jackson School of Geosciences
Watch the recorded talk.
November 28, 2022 1:00pm – 2:00pm
A General Circulation Model to Assess the Dynamics and Habitability of Europa’s Ocean
Sara Miller
Graduate Student
Department of Astronomy Cornell University
Watch the recorded talk.
November 14, 2022 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Exoplanet Atmosphere Recipes
Edwin Kite
Associate Professor
Department of the Geophysical Sciences
The University of Chicago
Watch the recorded talk.
October 31, 2022 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Rethinking the search for the origins of life: Prebiotic chemistry and early Earth environments
Timothy Lyons
Distinguished Professor of Biogeochemistry
UC Riverside Earth and Planetary Sciences
Watch the recorded talk.
October 24, 2022 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Ocean Worlds of the Outer Solar System
Kevin Hand
PI & Director, Ocean Worlds Lab
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Watch the recorded talk.
October 10, 2022 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Limited Recharge of the Highland Aquifer on Early Mars
Eric Hiatt
Graduate Research Assistant
University of Texas Institute for Geophysics
September 26, 2022 1:00pm – 2:00pm
What does biochemistry tell us about habitability?
Loren Williams
Director
Center for the Origin Of Life, Georgia Institute of Technology
Watch the recorded talk.
Two Talk Special!
September 12, 2022 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Talk 1: Impact crater thermochronometry and the effects of shock microstructures
Cat Ross
Visiting Assistant Professor of Structural Geology
UT Jackson School of Geosciences
Talk 2: Role of impact brines in Europa’s habitability
Evan Carnahan
Graduate Student
Texas Electrical and Computer Engineering, UT Austin
Watch the recorded talk.
May 9, 2022 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Mapping Buried Martian Lava Tubes through Orbital Radar Sounding
Kirk Scanlan
Postdoctoral Researcher
National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark
Watch the recorded talk.
April 25, 2022 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Downward oxidant transport through Europa’s ice shell by density-driven brine percolation
Marc Hesse
Associate Professor
Department of Geological Sciences, Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin
To join the seminar online contact David Goldstein.
Watch the recorded talk.
March 21, 2022 1:00pm – 2:00pm
NASA’s next Great Observatory: a large, UV/Optical/Near-IR telescope capable of characterizing nearby habitable worlds
Scott Gaudi
Thomas Jefferson Professor for Discovery and Space Exploration
Department of Astronomy
Ohio State University
To join the seminar online contact David Goldstein.
Watch the recorded talk.
February 28, 2022 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Landscape evolution and the early Mars hydroclimate: constraints from paleolake and valley morphologies
Gaia Stucky de Quay
Reginald A. Daly Postdoctoral Fellow
Harvard University
Watch the recorded talk.
February 14, 2022 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Beyond Miller–Urey: Pathways to Life in Prebiotically Relevant Environments using Plasmas
Thomas C. Underwood
Assistant Professor
UT Austin, Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics
Watch the recorded talk.
January 24, 2022 1:00pm – 2:00pm
What Lies Beneath: The Importance of Groundwater Influenced Subsurface Habitats in the Search for Life on Mars
Kennda Lynch
Staff Scientist
Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI)
Universities Space Research Association
Talk not recorded.
November 22, 2021 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Mass measurements and rescue of planets using a fully dedicated Australian observatory
Rob Wittenmyer, Professor
(MINiature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Array) MINERVA-Australis Observatory
University of Southern Queensland, Australia
Watch the recorded talk.
November 8, 2021 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Three billion years of seawater evolution – How continental growth, weathering, climate swings, and the colonization of land have impacted seawater composition, and what this tells us about Earth’s homeostasis
John Lassiter, Professor
Department of Geological Sciences
Jackson School of Geosciences
University of Texas at Austin
Watch the recorded talk.
October 18, 2021 1:00pm – 2:00pm
The Value of Building a Texas Astrobiology Community
Charity Phillips-Lander
Senior Research Scientist, Astrobiology
Space Science and Engineering Division
Southwest Research Institute
Talk not recorded.
September 27, 2021 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Ultrasensitive Detection of Trace Chiral Prebiotic Molecules
Zilong Wu, Postdoctoral Fellow
Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering
Cockrell School of Engineering
University of Texas at Austin
Watch the recorded talk (requires UT Zoom).
September 13, 2021 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Energy Sources Powering the Geodynamo
Jung-Fu “Afu” Lin, Professor
Department of Geological Sciences
Jackson School of Geosciences
University of Texas at Austin
Watch the recorded talk (requires UT Zoom).
Habitability Seminar Archive
Monday, MONTH XX, 2024 1:00pm – 2:00pm
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