2011 Astrobiology Winter School

The University of Hawaii branch of the NASA Astrobiology Institute will host a winter school on the theme of “water and the evolution of life in the cosmos,” from Monday January 3rd to Monday January 17th 2011. This school will provide approximately 40 post-graduate participants with a broad but high-level introduction into astrobiology, emphasizing the origin and role of water in the emergence of life on our planet, and in the search for life elsewhere. It will be truly multidisciplinary, bringing together students and researchers from the diverse scientific backgrounds that contribute to our understanding here. Hawaii offers ideal resources for this training opportunity, from world-leading astronomical observing facilities through state of the art cosmochemistry simulation equipment to unique geologic environments in which extremophile life exists. Applications are invited from all graduate and post-doctoral students whose research interests intersect with astrobiology.

Topics to be covered

- Origin of Earth Oceans - Observations of ices and water in space - Icy grain formation, chemistry, and molecular processes in disk - Star formation - Water in the early solar system - Comets and small body missions - Exploring the moon for water - Water on early earth and inventory of Earth's water - Ice records and climate on early earth

- Life in icy environments - Water on Mars and Mars mission results - Habitable worlds (Europa, Enceladus, Titan) - Hot spot volcanism - Water-Rock interactions in extreme environments - Origins of life - Chance versus Repeatability in Evolution - Deep Sub Seafloor Biospheres - Thermodynamics of microbial systems

The winter school will be a mix of lectures, discussion groups, tours (Mauna Kea, Hawaii Volcanos park, astrobiology laboratory facilities) and hands on activities (observing projects using the Mauna Kea facilities). In addition, all students will be invited to participate in a poster session. For further questions, please send email to uhnaiws2011@ifa.hawaii.edu. We will begin evaluating the applications in early July, 2010.

Cost: for successful applicants, there will be no charge (i.e. UHNAI will pay for accommodation, travel, food and all educational activities). For non U.S. citizens, and U.S. citizens residing/studying abroad, there may be a modest charge (see below). We will be able to offer more specific information as we write to offer places to sucessful applicants, so please feel free to apply and negotiate this with us as it becomes relevant.

Eligibility: Graduate students and early career postdocs. We will accept foreign students, but there may be a modest paperwork processing fee and depending on country of origin and tax treaties, this may be taxable (we are working on the details and will post these soon).

Applications closed on June 30, 2010

Thank you for your interest in the 2010 UHNAI Winter School: the deadline for applications has now passed, and we are no longer acceptingnew submissions. We are reviewing all applications during the month of July. If you have already submitted an application then please await email from us to tell you whether you have been successful.