As part of the new NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) project “Habitability of Hydrocarbon Worlds: Titan and Beyond”, researchers are investigating the mechanisms and pathways by which biosignature-hosting materials might be transported from a habitable ocean environment to the surface, where they could be recognized by remote sensing instruments.
https://nai.nasa.gov/teams/can-8/jpl-titan/
Opportunities exist in this area at the University of Hawaii (UH) for:
A graduate student to pursue their Ph.D., enrolled through the Department of Earth Sciences (https://soest.hawaii.edu/GG/), but hosted within the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology
(https://www.higp.hawaii.edu). The deadline for applying is January 15
for Fall 2019 admission; more details at:
https://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/admissions/gg_admissions.html
A postdoctoral researcher to develop a proposal for the NASA Astrobiology Postdoctoral Program, to be hosted at HIGP. The next deadlines for this program are November 1 and March 1; more details
at:
https://nasa.gov/funding/postdoctoral-fellowship-program
Individuals are sought who have solid physics/math backgrounds, and interests/expertise in numerical modeling, cryomagmatism, ice physics, Titan and/or other icy satellites.
Please contact Sarah Fagents at fagents [at] hawaii.edu for more information.