Conference Agenda
Monday, September 8 through Friday September 12, 2025
Monday, September 8
| 17:00-19:00 |
Registration and Reception Harper Court Conference Room 1121 5235 S. Harper Court
|
Tuesday, September 9
| 8:00 | Coffee |
| 8:45 | Welcome |
| 9:00 |
Nicolas Tosca The geochemical aftermath of large impacts on the Hadean Earth (101 Talk) |
| 9:45 |
Furkan Ozturk On the Origin of Life’s Homochirality: Geochemical Foundations |
| 10:15 | Coffee/Posters |
| 11:00 |
Roger Fu Setting the geophysical stage for life: Plate tectonics and core dynamos on early Earth and Mars |
| 11:30 |
Craig Walton Can subaerial environments sustain prebiotic chemistry? |
| 12:00 | Poster Flash Talks |
| 12:30 | Lunch |
| 13:30 | Poster Session |
| 15:00 |
Irene Chen Influence of protocell encapsulation on RNA |
| 15:30 |
Neal Devaraj Chemically Driven Self-Organization of RNA into Protocell Vesicles |
| 16:00 |
Anna Wang Shape-shifting in model protocells |
| 16:30 |
Job Boekhoven A systems chemistry approach towards minimal life |
Wednesday, September 10
| 8:00 | Coffee |
| 9:00 |
Gerald (Jerry) Joyce Ribozyme Evolution 101 |
| 9:45 |
Daniel Whitaker Selective aminoacylation of RNA by thioesters |
| 10:15 | Coffee/Posters |
| 11:00 |
Saurja DasGupta Evolutionary Improvisations: How RNA enzymes Invent New Ways to ligate RNA |
| 11:30 |
Joe Piccirilli Structural and Functional Characterization of a Self-Acylating RNA Motif |
| 12:00 | Poster Flash Talks |
| 12:30 | Lunch |
| 13:30 | Poster Session |
| 15:00 |
Diana Powell Probing formation via exoplanet atmospheric composition: insights from sulfur inventories |
| 15:30 |
Nikku Madhusudhan Prospects for Detecting Biosignatures on Exoplanets |
| 16:00 |
Jacob Bean Challenges for Detecting Biosignatures on Exoplanets |
Thursday, September 11
| 8:00 | Coffee |
| 9:00 |
Conel Alexander Meteorites as guides to making a habitable Earth |
| 9:45 |
Julia Santos Experimentally probing complex molecule formation in interstellar ices |
| 10:15 | Coffee/Posters |
| 11:00 |
Sarah Zeichner Made of Star Stuff? Insights into the Origins of Extraterrestrial Organics via Compound, Position-specific and Clumped Isotope Analyses |
| 11:30 |
Daniel Duzdevich Sulfuric acid-resistant vesicles for an experimental astrobiology of Venus |
| 12:00 |
Cara Magnabosco What happens when the ground shakes? How seismic activity affects rock-powered life |
| 12:30 | Lunch |
| 13:30 | Poster Session |
| 14:30 |
Jonah Peter A Solar System Approach to the Origins of Life: New Frontiers |
| 15:00 |
Jasmina Wiemann Tracing the rules of biochemistry through time and space reveals the fingerprint, origin, evolution, and evolvability of Life |
| 15:30 |
STUDENT PRIZE TALK Gabriel Giger Injecting Bacteria into a Fungus to Probe Endosymbiogenesis |
| 18:00-21:00 | Conference Banquet |
Friday, September 12
| 8:00 | Coffee |
| 9:00 |
Saidul Islam Prebiotic Chemistry 101 – Diverse biomolecules from a few good reactions |
| 9:45 |
Bruno Marinič Towards a prebiotically plausible phosphate activating agent |
| 10:15 | Coffee/Posters |
| 11:00 |
Martin Falk Replication of Collectively Coded Information |
| 11:30 |
James Attwater Driving exponential RNA replication using physicochemical cycles |
| 12:00 |
John Chaput Evidence for a Path Divided Model in Polymerase Evolution |