The NASA Astrobiology Program invites you to share and discover in the new Seminar Series of its Research Coordination Network: Prebiotic Chemistry and Early Earth Environments (PCE₃). The PCE₃ Seminar Series is designed to highlight diverse origins of life research from all over the world, spark interdisciplinary discussion, and facilitate research connections among the PCE₃ community. A primary goal of this series is to showcase the work of talented early career scientists in PCE₃ sciences. 

The series will begin on Thursday, June 3rd, from 1:00-2:30 pm (EST) and be held every 3rd Thursday on a continuing basis. Shifts in the seminar hours will occur with notice later in the year for inclusion of participants in Europe/Australasia. Additionally, sessions will be recorded with the permission of the speakers and uploaded to the PCE₃ YouTube Channel.

If the Zoom meeting reaches capacity, the seminar will be live-streamed to the PCE₃ YouTube channel for concurrent viewing.

Each seminar will feature two speakers (~25 min each) at an early-career stage, supplemented by brief overviews and occasional presentations from mid-to-late career researchers. Speakers are asked to present recent research geared for engagement of the non-specialist, followed by discussion with the audience. Our aim is that the talks will lay a foundation for stimulating discussions and collaborations.

We are excited to have Zoe Todd and Zachary Cohen from the University of Washington speaking in the first week. The titles of their talks are:

Zoe Todd: What can the planetary environment tell us about origins of life?

Zachary Cohen: Prebiotic membranes are tough and accommodating: solute encapsulation and peptide formation in evaporative environments on the early Earth.