AstroWatt Lecture Series - Dr Sarah Rugheimer on Astrobiology
LT2, Heriot-Watt Edinburgh Campus
Free
Learn about the science of astrobiology and how we look for life outside our solar system
Dr. Sarah Rugheimer is a new faculty member at the IfA at the University of Edinburgh. She works on how to detect life on an exoplanet by looking for atmospheric biosignatures. Her research interests are modelling the atmosphere, climate and photochemistry of extrasolar planets. She earned her bachelor’s degree at the University of Calgary, and her M.A. and Ph.D. at Harvard. She then took the Simons Origins of Life Research Fellowship to St. Andrews followed by a Glasstone Research Fellowship at Oxford. She was an associate professor and the Allan I. Carswell Chair at York University before joining the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh last July. In addition to research, Sarah is interested public outreach. Her TED talk “The Search for Microscopic Aliens” has 1.8 million views on TED.com and she wrote “Searching for Extraterrestrial Life.” She has received the Barrie Jones, Caroline Herschel, and the BSA Rosalind Franklin award.