A postdoctoral scholar, or postdoc, “is an individual holding a doctoral degree who is engaged in a temporary period of mentored research and/or scholarly training for the purpose of acquiring the professional skills needed to pursue a career path of his or her choosing,” according to the National Postdoctoral Association.
Among the most coveted postdoctoral appointments are those from the NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP). These fellowships offer early-career researchers “the opportunity to share in NASA’s mission, to reach for new heights, and to reveal the unknown so that what we do and learn will benefit all humankind,” NPP says.
The College of Sciences is the proud host of six NPP fellows advancing NASA’s mission in astrobiology and solar system exploration. The concentration of talent testifies to Georgia Tech’s vibrant astrobiology and space science research communities.
Meet the six NPP fellows whose scientific career paths are being shaped by their mentors in the College of Sciences. Just as we invest in our students, we have a stake in the success of these early-career scientists. Like our graduates, they will be very much our alumni, too, when they move on.
Peter Conlin
Ph.D. University of Washington
Fitness Decoupling in Transition to Multicellularity
Moran Frenkel-Pinter
Ph.D. Tel Aviv University
Prebiotic Assembly of Proto-Peptides
Andrew Mullen
Ph.D. University of California, San Diego
Holographic Microscopy for Icy Worlds
Micah Schaible
Ph.D. University of Virginia
Effects of Electrostatically Charged Dust Grains
Nicholas Speller
Ph.D. Louisiana State University
Ionic Species Analyzer for Icy Moon Europa
Nadia Szeinbaum
Ph.D. Georgia Institute of Technology
Microbial Interactions Leading to Great Oxidation Event