Group News

2024

  • Thanks to NASA's Solar Systems Working Program for a new $510K three year grant supporting our research on the Effects of UV-driven Production of oxychlorines on Subsurface Biomarkers on Mars.

  • Our paper entitled "Permeation of photochemically-generated gaseous chlorine dioxide on Mars as a significant factor in destroying subsurface organic compounds",with Jacob Newmark as lead author, has been published in Nature Sci.Rep. Link to Paper>> .

  • Congratulations to Bernadette Dineen on being accepted to present a TEDx @Tufts.

2023

  • Welcome to our new graduate research colleague Molly Twombly!!

  • Short clip from Bernadette’s presentation at the Boston Museum of Science about life on Mars Link to Video>

  • Our paper entitled "Microbial growth in in actual martian regolith in the form of Mars meteorite EETA79001", has been published in Nature Comm E&E. Link to Paper>>

  • Congratulations to Bernadette Dineen on her acceptance as a team member of the week-long NASA Astrobiology Mars Mission Concept Workshop at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

  • Welcome to our new undergrad research colleague Rachel Taylor.

  • Emma Smith has been awarded a Dewald Summer Scholarship that will support her during the summer to carry out research.

  • Congratulations to Emma Smith on being accepted to the Tufts in London Fall program at Queen Mary University of London.

  • Alex Walter’s research on “Fragmentation of Tryptophan as a Biomarker on Mars when Exposed to UV Irradiation in the Presence of an Oxychlorine” has been accepted for oral presentation at the 54th Lunar & Planetary Science Conference Link to Abstract>>

  • Welcome to our new graduate research colleagues Bernadette Dineen and Megan Farrah.

  • Welcome to our new undergrad research colleague Madeline Walters.

2022

  • Our paper entitled "Microbial Growth in Martian Soil Simulants Under Terrestrial Conditions: Guiding the Search for Life on Mars", with Neveda Naz as lead author, has been published in Astrobiology. Link to Paper>>

  • Congratulation to Allison Brea on being accepted to Tufts Medical School.

  • Welcome to our new undergrad research colleague Emma Smith.

  • Congratulations to Bijan Harandi, as lead author on the paper entitled Fluidic-Based Instruments for Space Biology Research in CubeSats, published in Frontiers in Space Technologies. Link to Paper>>

  • Jacob Newmark has been awarded a Tufts Summer Scholars Fellowship that will support him during the summer to carry out research.

  • Congratulations to Alex Walter on her acceptance to the University of Notre Dame Chemistry PhD Program.

  • Welcome to our new undergrad research colleague Jacob Newmark.

2021

  • Congratulations to Neveda and Bijan as part of the Deep Space Entomoculture Team on winning the NASA Food Challenge and $25K in funding to further develop the technology.

  • Welcome to our new undergrad research colleague Clare Utz.

  • Welcome to our new undergrad research colleague Allison Bear.

  • Congratulations to Neveda for her acceptance to the NASA Planetary Science Summer School (PSSS)

  • Congratulations to Bijan for his acceptance to the Space Life Sciences Training Program (SLSTP) at NASA-Ames for the summer.

  • Our paper entitled "Degradation of Amino Acids on Mars by UV Irradiation in the Presence of Chloride and Oxychlorine Salts", has been published in Astrobiology. Link to Paper>>

  • Welcome to our new undergrad research colleague Alex Walter.

2020

  • Our paper entitled "Methanogenic Archaea Can Produce Methane in Deliquescence-Driven Mars Analog Environments", has been published in Nature Sci. Rep. Link to Paper>>

  • Thanks to NASA's Solar Systems Working Program for a new $550K four year grant supporting our research on the Effects of Oxychlorines and their UV-driven Production on Organic Matter on Mars.

  • Welcome to our new undergrad research colleague and Laidlaw Scholar Bijan Harandi.

  • Congratulation to Donyu Liu on for successfully defending his PhD thesis and accepting a postdoctoral position with us for a few months while waiting for COVID to hopefully subside.

2019

  • Welcome to our new undergrad research colleague Lillie Dennis.

  • Our paper entitled "The Production of Perchlorate (ClO4-) from Chlorite (ClO2-) and Chlorate (ClO3-) on Earth and Mars and the Role of Titanium Dioxide (TiO2)" has been published in ACS Earth and Space Chemistry Link to Paper>>

  • Welcome to our new undergrad research colleague Vedant Kothari.

  • Prof. Kounaves has received the ACS Kavli Foundation Innovations in Chemistry Award. His talk, presented at the Orlando ACS Meeting in April, was entitled "The Chemistry of Finding Extraterrestrial Life".

  • Our paper entitled "Indigenous Organic-Oxidized Fluid Interactions in the Tissint Mars Meteorite" has been published in Geophysical Research Letters Link to Paper>>

  • Thanks to NASA's ICEE2 Europa Lander Program for supporting our research on the Microfluidic Icy-World Chemistry Analyzer.

2018

  • Welcome to our new postdoctoral scholar colleague Dr. Neveda Naz

  • Our research in the Atacama Desert is featured in National Geopgraphic. Link to NG Story>>

  • Our paper entitled "Perchlorate Driven Combustion of Organic Matter During Py-GC-MS: Implications for Organic Matter Detection on Earth & Mars" has been published in the Journal of Geophysical Research Link to Paper>>

  • Our paper entitled "A Transitory Microbial Habitat in the Hyperarid Atacama Desert" has been accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Link to Paper>>

  • Congratulations to Miles Clark on obtaining his MS Degree!

2017

  • Congratulations to Dr. Elizabeth Oberlin for successfully defending her PhD thesis and being offered a postdoctoral fellowship at CalTech/JPL!

  • Thanks to NASA (COLDTech Program) for supporting our research on Assessing  Habitability of Ocean Worlds by Analysis of Surface or Plume Samples.

  • Our paper entitled "Evaluation of the Tindouf Basin Region in Southern Morocco as an Analog Site for Soil Geochemistry on Noachian Mars", has been accepted for publication in the journal Astrobiology.

  • Congratulations to Robert Bolhofner on obtaining his MS Degree!

  • Thanks to NASA (COLDTech Program) for supporting our research on Life Detection on Icy Worlds (SPLIce).

  • Andrew Weber has accepted a position at Giner Labs in Newton MA

  • Our chapter entitled "Volatiles Measured by the Phoenix Lander at the Northern Plains of Mars" has been published in the book Volatiles in the Martian Crust. Link to Book Chapter>>

  • Congratulations to Jessica Dabrowski on her graduation and acceptance to the MIT/WHOI Joint PhD Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science

  • Our paper entitled "Solid Contact Ion Selective Electrodes for In Situ Measurements at High Pressure" has been accepted for publication in Analytical Chemistry.  Link to Paper>>

  • Congratulations to Jingcheng Huang on his graduation and acceptance to MIT's PhD chemistry program.

2016

  • Congratulations to Andrew Weber on obtaining his MS Degree!

  • Glen O'Neil has accepted an Assistant Professor position at Montclair State University.

  • Congratulations to Adam Hildebrand on his graduation!

2015

  • Welcome to our new graduate student colleague Robert Bolhofner.

  • Welcome to our new undergrad student colleague Adam Hildebrand.

  • Prof. Kounaves has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in recognition of his contributions to the chemical sciences. More>>

  • Our paper "The Origins of Perchlorate in the Martian Soil" has been accepted and published in the American Geophysical Union (AGU) journal Geophysical Research Letters. Link to Paper>>

  • Our paper "The Use of Graphene Oxide as a Fixed Charge Carrier in Ion-Selective Electrodes" has been accepted for publication in the International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE) journal Electrochemical Communications. Link to Paper>>

  • Congratulations to Dr. Brandi Carrier for successfully defending her PhD thesis and being offered a postdoc at the NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory!

  • Jessica Dabrowski has been awarded a Beckman Scholars Fellowship that will support her for an academic year and two summers to carry out research.

  • Brandi Carrier has been awarded a NASA Postdoc Fellowship at JPL to work on the Raman Spectrometer which is scheduled to fly on the 2020 Mars rover.

  • Glen O'Neil has accepted a postdoc position at Columbia University.

2014

  • Welcome to our new graduate student colleagues Miles Clark and Dongyu Liu.

  • Our paper “Electrochemistry of Aqueous Colloidal Graphene Oxide on Pt Electrodes” has been accepted for publication in the ACS journal Langmuir. Link to Paper>>

  • Our paper “Evidence of Martian Perchlorate, Chlorate, and Nitrate in Mars Meteorite EETA79001: Implications for Oxidants and Organics” has been accepted for publication in the journal Icarus. Link to Paper>>

2013

  • Prof. Kounaves has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in recognition of his contributions to analytical chemistry and planetary science. More>>

  • Congratulations to Dr. Glen O'Neil for successfully defending his PhD thesis and accepting a postdoc at the University of Warwick in the UK.

  • Congratulations to Dr. Kyle McElhoney for successfully defending his PhD thesis and accepting a position as Assistant Professor at Stonehill College.

  • Congratulations to Kaitlyn Folds for successfully completing her M.S. and accepting a position at Energy Fitness and Gymnastics.

  • Congratulations to Victoria Hansen for successfully completing her M.S. and accepting a position at General Electric Global Research Center.

  • Stacey Berkowitz has received a scholarship from the "DeWald Summer Scholar Program".

  • Glen O'Neil has received an ACS Travel Award to the Chemistry Congress in Prague.

2012

  • Our paper “An Electrochemically Based Total Organic Carbon Analyzer for Planetary and Terrestrial On-Site Applications” has been accepted for publication in Analytical Chemistry

  • Prof. Kounaves is featured in the Royal Chemical Society's Chemistry World. Link to Article>>

2011

  • Congratulations to Dr. Shannon Stroble for successfully defending her PhD thesis.

2010

  • Shannon Stroble has been awarded a GAANN fellowship.

  • Congratulations to Jody Maisano for obtaining her M.S. and returning to the US Coast Guard Academy as a chemistry instructor.

  • Congratulations to Trish Hredzak for obtaining her M.S. and accepting a position as a PhD student at the University of Delaware.
  • Prof Kounaves has received a NASA Achievement Award for "outstanding performance in the planning and execution of the science for the Phoenix Mars mission" and a group achievement award for "development and operation of the Phoenix spacecraft leading to the first landing in the Martian arctic".
  • Shannon Stroble has received a Massachusetts Space Grant Consortium (MASGC) Student Fellowship for Fall 2007-Summer 2008

  • Prof. Kounaves has received the 2008 "Massachusetts Columbus Quincentennial Award" for his work on the Mars Lander, "in recognition of his innovative achievement and its significance to the Commonwealth."

  • Congratulations to Brian Comeau for successfully defending his PhD thesis and accepting a position at Acushnet Company.



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