Sarah Rugheimer

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Sarah Rugheimer is a Swiss-American astrobiologist and astrophysicist at Jesus College, Oxford. Her research focuses on the atmospheric composition of exoplanets, and ways of detecting life.

Contents

Education

Rugheimer earned her bachelor's degree in physics at the University of Calgary. She completed her master's degree and PhD in Astronomy and Astrophysics at Harvard University. [1] Her thesis topic involved studying biomarkers and modelling the atmosphere of exoplanets, using space-based telescopes. [2]

In 2014, she was one of eight finalists selected for Harvard's Horizon Scholars. She delivered a five-minute talk on her PhD thesis, "Spectral Fingerprints of Another Earth", at the 2014 Harvard Horizons Symposium. [3]

Career

In 2015, Rugheimer worked at the Carl Sagan Institute, and was the lead author of a study that produced models of Earth-like planets. [4] For two years from 2016, she was a Simons Origins of Life Research Fellow at the University of St Andrews, where her research explored biosignature gases. [5] [6]

In 2019, Rugheimer is a Glasstone Research Fellow and Hugh Price Fellow at Clarendon Laboratory, part of the Department of Physics, University of Oxford.

Now, she is currently working as an associate professor at York University and also now holds the Allan I. Carswell Chair for the public understanding of Astronomy.

Research

Rugheimer's research focuses on atmospheric biosignatures (signs of life) on Earth-like planets, as well as Earth's early atmosphere. [7] She is particularly interested in star-planet interactions and how the UV environment of a host star affects the atmosphere of planets. [1]

"I am confident life exists elsewhere in the universe. But confidence isn’t enough. Over the next few years, our searches are going to become more accurate, more thorough and capable of looking further than before. The answers we find stand to fundamentally shift our understanding of the universe and our place in it." [8]

Awards

After completing her PhD in 2015, Rugheimer received a three-year Simons Origin of Life Fellowship, which she undertook at the University of St. Andrews. [2]

In 2018, she was the 2018 Caroline Herschel Prize winner for Promising Female Junior Astronomer in the UK. [9]

In 2019, Rugheimer was awarded the Rosalind Franklin Award Lecture for Physical Sciences and Mathematics by the British Science Association. [10]

In 2019, Astrobiology Society of Britain awarded Rugheimer with The Barrie Jones Award Lecture for her achievements in astrobiology-related outreach, teaching and mentoring in the field of astrobiology. [11]

Rugheimer is one of the TED Fellows in 2020. [12]

Personal life

Rugheimer's father was a physics teacher and she credits him for her love of teaching. [13]

She has stated that she did not have a strong interest in astronomy, until she heard about astrobiology at the American Astronomical Society (AAS) conference in her final undergraduate year.

"I had never heard anything more exciting. Finally science is beginning to being able to start answering humanity’s most fundamental questions of how we got here, and is there life elsewhere in the Universe? Are we alone? These are basic fundamental questions we have been thinking about for thousands of years". [2]

Rugheimer co-hosts a podcast, "Self-care with Drs. Sarah", which covers topics such as women in science and navigating academic careers. [14]

She competed internationally in Irish dance for 11 years. In 2011, Rugheimer climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and since climbed mountains across the world including Aconcagua, Cayambe, Chimborazo, Mt. Rainier and Mt. Baker. [1]

One of the wonderful Professors that had a huge influence on Rugheimer in her younger years while studying at the University of Calgary was Dr. Jay Gamble who taught her Fantasy Literature.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Astrobiology</span> Science concerned with life in the universe

Astrobiology is a scientific field within the life and environmental sciences that studies the origins, early evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe by investigating its deterministic conditions and contingent events. As a discipline, astrobiology is founded on the premise that life may exist beyond Earth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Extraterrestrial life</span> Life that did not originate on Earth

Extraterrestrial life or alien life is life which does not originate from Earth. No extraterrestrial life has yet been conclusively detected. Such life might range from simple forms such as prokaryotes to intelligent beings, possibly bringing forth civilizations that might be far more advanced than humanity. The Drake equation speculates about the existence of sapient life elsewhere in the universe. The science of extraterrestrial life is known as astrobiology.

A biosignature is any substance – such as an element, isotope, molecule, or phenomenon that provides scientific evidence of past or present life. Measurable attributes of life include its complex physical or chemical structures and its use of free energy and the production of biomass and wastes. A biosignature can provide evidence for living organisms outside the Earth and can be directly or indirectly detected by searching for their unique byproducts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Planetary habitability</span> Known extent to which a planet is suitable for life

Planetary habitability is the measure of a planet's or a natural satellite's potential to develop and maintain environments hospitable to life. Life may be generated directly on a planet or satellite endogenously or be transferred to it from another body, through a hypothetical process known as panspermia. Environments do not need to contain life to be considered habitable nor are accepted habitable zones (HZ) the only areas in which life might arise.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ocean world</span> Planet containing a significant amount of water or other liquid

An ocean world, ocean planet, panthalassic planet, maritime world, water world or aquaplanet, is a type of planet that contains a substantial amount of water in the form of oceans, as part of its hydrosphere, either beneath the surface, as subsurface oceans, or on the surface, potentially submerging all dry land. The term ocean world is also used sometimes for astronomical bodies with an ocean composed of a different fluid or thalassogen, such as lava, ammonia or hydrocarbons. The study of extraterrestrial oceans is referred to as planetary oceanography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sara Seager</span> Canadian astronomer

Sara Seager is a Canadian–American astronomer and planetary scientist. She is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is known for her work on extrasolar planets and their atmospheres. She is the author of two textbooks on these topics, and has been recognized for her research by Popular Science, Discover Magazine, Nature, and TIME Magazine. Seager was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2013 citing her theoretical work on detecting chemical signatures on exoplanet atmospheres and developing low-cost space observatories to observe planetary transits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lisa Kaltenegger</span> Austrian astronomer

Lisa Kaltenegger is an Austrian world-leading astronomer with expertise in the modeling and characterization of exoplanets and the search for life. On July 1, 2014, she was appointed Associate Professor of Astronomy at Cornell University. Previously, she held a joint position at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg where she was the Emmy Noether Research Group Leader for the "Super-Earths and Life" group, and at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian in Cambridge, MA. She was appointed Lecturer in 2008 at Harvard University and 2011 at University of Heidelberg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Technosignature</span> Property that provides scientific evidence for the presence of technology

Technosignature or technomarker is any measurable property or effect that provides scientific evidence of past or present technology. Technosignatures are analogous to biosignatures, which signal the presence of life, whether intelligent or not. Some authors prefer to exclude radio transmissions from the definition, but such restrictive usage is not widespread. Jill Tarter has proposed that the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) be renamed "the search for technosignatures". Various types of technosignatures, such as radiation leakage from megascale astroengineering installations such as Dyson spheres, the light from an extraterrestrial ecumenopolis, or Shkadov thrusters with the power to alter the orbits of stars around the Galactic Center, may be detectable with hypertelescopes. Some examples of technosignatures are described in Paul Davies's 2010 book The Eerie Silence, although the terms "technosignature" and "technomarker" do not appear in the book.

The Virtual Planetary Laboratory (VPL) is a virtual institute based at the University of Washington that studies how to detect exoplanetary habitability and their potential biosignatures. First formed in 2001, the VPL is part of the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) and connects more than fifty researchers at twenty institutions together in an interdisciplinary effort. VPL is also part of the Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS) network, with principal investigator Victoria Meadows leading the NExSS VPL team.

The Carl Sagan Institute: Pale Blue Dot and Beyond was founded in 2014 at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York to further the search for habitable planets and moons in and outside the Solar System. It is focused on the characterization of exoplanets and the instruments to search for signs of life in the universe. The founder and current director of the institute is astronomer Lisa Kaltenegger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tabetha S. Boyajian</span> American astronomer

Tabetha "Tabby" Suzanne Boyajian is an American astronomer of Armenian descent and astrophysicist on faculty at Louisiana State University. She was a post-doctoral fellow 2012–16 at Yale University, working with Debra Fischer. Boyajian is active in the astronomical fields of stellar interferometry, stellar spectroscopy, exoplanet research, and high angular resolution astronomy, all particularly at optical and infrared wavelengths. She was the lead author of the September 2015 paper "Where's the Flux?", which investigated the highly unusual light curve of KIC 8462852; the star is colloquially known as Tabby's Star in her honor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen R. Kane</span>

Stephen Kane is a full professor of astronomy and planetary astrophysics at the University of California, Riverside who specializes in exoplanetary science. His work covers a broad range of exoplanet detection methods, including the microlensing, transit, radial velocity, and imaging techniques. He is a leading expert on the topic of planetary habitability and the habitable zone of planetary systems. He has published hundreds of peer reviewed scientific papers and has discovered/co-discovered several hundred planets orbiting other stars. He is a prolific advocate of interdisciplinarity science and studying Venus as an exoplanet analog.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Betül Kaçar</span> Turkish academic

Betül Kacar is a Turkish-American astrobiologist and an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin. She directs a NASA Astrobiology Research Center exploring the essential attributes of life, its origins and how they should shape our notions of habitability and the search for life on other worlds.

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Nautilus Deep Space Observatory (NDSO) is a proposed deep space fleet of space telescopes designed to search for biosignatures of life in the atmospheres of exoplanets.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Detecting Earth from distant star-based systems</span> Detecting Earth as an exoplanet

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kennda Lynch</span> Astrobiologist and engineer for NASA programs

Kennda Lian Lynch is an American astrobiologist and geomicrobiologist who studies polyextremophiles. She has primarily been affiliated with NASA. She identifies environments on Earth with characteristics that may be similar to environments on other planets, and creates models that help identify characteristics that would indicate an environment might host life. Lynch also identifies what biosignatures might look like on other planets. Much of Lynch's research on analog environments has taken place in the Pilot Valley Basin in the Great Salt Desert of northwestern Utah, U.S. Her work in that paleolake basin informed the landing location of NASA's Perseverance Rover mission—at another paleolake basin called Jezero Crater. Jim Greene, Chief Scientist at NASA, called Lynch "a perfect expert to be involved in the Perseverance rover." Helping to select the proper landing site for NASA's first crewed mission to Mars in 2035 is another of Lynch's projects. Lynch has appeared in multiple television series, as well as The New York Times, Nature, Scientific American, and Popular Science. Cell Press designated Lynch one of the most inspiring Black scientists in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MERMOZ</span> Way of remotely detecting living matter

MERMOZ is an astrobiology project designed to remotely detect biosignatures of life. Detection is based on molecular homochirality, a characteristic property of the biochemicals of life. The aim of the project is to remotely identify and characterize life on the planet Earth from space, and to extend this technology to other solar system bodies and exoplanets. The project began in 2018, and is a collaboration of the University of Bern, University of Leiden and Delft University of Technology.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Dr Sarah Rugheimer | Jesus College, University of Oxford". www.jesus.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-10-02.
  2. 1 2 3 "Interview with former graduate student Sarah Rugheimer". origins.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2019-10-02.
  3. ↑ Sarah Rugheimer | Harvard Horizons Symposium , retrieved 2019-10-02
  4. ↑ Friedlander, Blaine (15 June 2015). "Astronomers create array of Earth-like planet models". Cornell Chronicle. Retrieved 2019-10-02.
  5. ↑ Dorminey, Bruce. "How Astronomers Will Tease Life From Distant Exo-Earths". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-10-02.
  6. ↑ Witze, Alexandra (27 July 2016). "Planet Hunters Seek New Ways to Detect Alien Life". Nature. 535 (7613): 474–5. Bibcode:2016Natur.535..474W. doi: 10.1038/535474a . PMID   27466103. S2CID   4444935 . Retrieved 2019-10-02.
  7. ↑ "Earth holds the key to detecting life beyond our solar system". phys.org. Retrieved 2019-10-02.
  8. ↑ "Are there aliens out there? We are close to knowing for sure | New Scientist".
  9. ↑ "Dr Sarah Rugheimer wins Herschel Prize Lectureship | The Royal Astronomical Society". ras.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-10-02.
  10. ↑ "Introducing: our 2019 Award Lecturers". British Science Association. 24 June 2019. Retrieved 2019-10-02.
  11. ↑ "The 2019 Barrie Jones Award Lecture | astrobiologysociety.org" . Retrieved 2019-12-08.
  12. ↑ "Meet the 2020 class of TED Fellows and Senior Fellows". TED Blog. 2020-01-23. Retrieved 2020-01-27.
  13. ↑ "Dr. Sarah Rugheimer". www.sarahrugheimer.com. Retrieved 2019-10-02.
  14. ↑ "Self-care with Drs. Sarah on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. 9 April 2019. Retrieved 2019-10-02.
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