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Selections for the April 2018 Early Career Collaboration Award (ECCA) have been made! Congratulations to this year’s recipients of the spring awards for research dedicated to astrobiology.

Luoth Chou, University of Illinois, Chicago
Luoth will collaborate with Dr. Josef Werne (University of Pittsburg), in support of “Characterizing the intact polar lipids of an Antarctic cryoencapsulated hypersaline brine: implication for the habitability of icy planetary worlds”.

Andrew Gangidine, University of Cincinnati
Andrew will conduct field research with Prof. Martin Van Kranendonk (University of New South Wales, director of the Australian Centre for Astrobiology), to explore “A Step Back in Time – Ancient Hot Springs and the Search for Life on Mars”.

Amanda Garcia, University of California, Los Angeles
Amanda will travel to the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA, to learn “Molecular evolution tools for the reconstruction of ancestral nitrogenases”.

Bridget Lee, University of California, Riverside
Bridget will travel to Yale University, to collaborate with Dr. Noah Planavsky, to study “Banded Iron formations (BIFs): Key to the Rise of Atmospheric Oxygen”.

Zijian Li, Georgia Institute of Technology
Zijian will collaborate with Dr. Jeremy Owens at Florida State Universty, to investigate “A thallium isotope record of ocean oxygenation during the Lomagundi Event”.

Jesse Phillips, University of Tulsa
Jana will travel to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to collaborate with Dr. Laurie Barge, on “A Novel Method for Analyzing Nano-Scale Surface Redox Chemistry of Prebiotic Mineral Catalysts”.

Alexander Sousa, University of Rhode Island
Jana will travel to Japan and Boulder, Colorado, for “Participation in D/V Chikyu Core Logging Activity: Investigating Mineralogical Context and Organic Material in Serpentinizing Systems”.