The Laboratory for Agnostic Biosignatures (LAB) – a NASA-funded project consisting of 15
investigators at 7 Institutions – is seeking applicants for a postdoctoral fellowship in
astrobiology, with a focus on life detection. The LAB Project is developing techniques to detect
life in the universe that humans can’t conceive of. The LAB team includes biologists, chemists,
computer scientists, mathematicians, and instrument engineers. Together, these scientific
disciplines aim to define potential extraterrestrial biosignatures, or signs of life, by imagining
beyond the molecular framework and underlying biochemistry of the only life we know of here
on Earth. The team is designing tools and techniques for detecting these signatures as well as
strategies for interpreting them, with the aim of advancing the in situ search for life on Mars,
Titan, Enceladus, Europa and other bodies within our Solar System.
A postdoctoral scientist is sought to work on testing disequilibrium energy-transfer biosignatures using electrochemical methods. The postdoc will utilize a suite of electrochemical techniques to produce a robust set of electrochemical criteria that can be used to agnostically differentiate between biological and abiotic electrochemical reactions. These reactions are the basis of energy production in all known life, and may form the basis of life in any environment.
For more information, visit:
https://www.agnosticbiosignatures.org/opportunities