Habitable Worlds

Organization
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Reference Code
0005-NPP-MAR25-ABProg-Astrobio
How to Apply

All applications must be submitted in Zintellect

Please visit the NASA Postdoctoral Program website for application instructions and requirements: How to Apply | NASA Postdoctoral Program (orau.org)

A complete application to the NASA Postdoctoral Program includes:

  1. Research proposal
  2. Three letters of recommendation
  3. Official doctoral transcript documents
Application Deadline
3/1/2025 6:00:59 PM Eastern Time Zone
Description

About the NASA Postdoctoral Program

The NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) offers unique research opportunities to highly-talented scientists to engage in ongoing NASA research projects at a NASA Center, NASA Headquarters, or at a NASA-affiliated research institute. These one- to three-year fellowships are competitive and are designed to advance NASA’s missions in space science, Earth science, aeronautics, space operations, exploration systems, and astrobiology.

Description:

The goal of the Habitable Worlds program is to use knowledge of the history of the Earth and the life upon it as a guide for determining the processes and conditions that create and maintain habitable environments (including transient environments) and to search for ancient and contemporary habitable environments and explore the possibility of extant life beyond the Earth.

NASA's Habitable Worlds Program includes elements of the Astrobiology Program, the Mars Exploration Program, the Outer Planets Program, the Planetary Protection Research Program (all in the Planetary Science Division) and Living With a Star in Heliophysics. A common goal of these programs is to identify the characteristics and the distribution of potentially habitable environments in the Solar System and beyond. This research is conducted in the context of NASA’s ongoing exploration of our stellar neighborhood and the identification of biosignatures for in situ and remote sensing applications. For further information on the science scope of Astrobiology, please refer to the Astrobiology roadmap, which can be found on the Astrobiology web page at https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/about/astrobiology-strategy/. Information on the habitability-related goals of the Mars Exploration Program can be found in the "Mars Science Goals, Objectives, Investigations and Priorities: 2020" document, available on the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group web page at https://mepag.jpl.nasa.gov/reports.cfm. For the Outer Planets Program, refer to the document "Scientific Goals for Exploration of the Outer Solar System," most recently  updated in 2019 and found on the Outer Planets Assessment Group web site (http://www.lpi.usra.edu/opag).

Applicants who apply for this research opportunity and are subsequently selected for an NPP award are expected to attend the Astrobiology Graduate Conference (AbGradCon) and/or the Astrobiology Science Conference (AbSciCon) using the travel funds that are conferred as part of the NPP award.

Field of Science: Astrobiology

Advisors

Alejandro Soto
asoto@boulder.swri.edu
720-240-0128

Florent Bocher
fbocher@swri.org
210-522-6559
 
Eleanor Browne
eleanor.browne@colorado.edu
303-735-7685
 
Jacob Buffo
jacob.j.buffo@dartmouth.edu
319-521-5503
 
Luoth Chou
luoth.chou@nasa.gov
703-638-9924
 
Jacob Haqq-Misra
jacob@bmsis.org
206-775-8787
 
Chester 'Sonny' E Harman
sonny.harman@nasa.gov
650-604-1671
 
Victoria L Hartwick
victoria.hartwick@swri.org
303-546-9670
 
Douglas Hemingway
douglas.hemingway@utexas.edu
202-679-5352
 
Marc A Hesse
mhesse@jsg.utexas.edu
512-963-0141
 
Christopher H House
chouse@geosc.psu.edu
814-865-8802
 
Theodora Karalidi
tkaralidi@ucf.edu
407-823-2325
 
Shannon MacKenzie
shannon.mackenzie@jhuapl.edu
859-760-2809
 
Carolina Munoz-Saez
cpm226@cornell.edu
347-425-4028
 
Roy Price
roy.price@stonybrook.edu
314-660-5141
 
Sina Saneiyan
saneiyan@ou.edu
201-772-4408
 
Everett Shock
eshock@asu.edu
480-965-0631
 
Susanna Widicus Weaver
slww@chem.wisc.edu
217-714-4475
 
Xinting Yu
xinting.yu@utsa.edu
410-736-0039

 

 

 

 

 

Eligibility is currently open to:

  • U.S. Citizens;
  • U.S. Lawful Permanent Residents (LPR);
  • Foreign Nationals eligible for an Exchange Visitor J-1 visa status; and,
  • Applicants for LPR, asylees, or refugees in the U.S. at the time of application with 1) a valid EAD card and 2) I-485 or I-589 forms in pending status

Questions about this opportunity? Please email npp@orau.org

Point of Contact
Eligibility Requirements
  • Degree: Doctoral Degree.
NPP
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