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Overview

Biography

• Postdoctoral Fellow in Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine (2018 - 2021).
• NASA Postdoctoral Management Fellow (NPMP) at NASA Ames Research Center (2016 - 2018)
• PhD in Biogeochemistry from the Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Research (COAS) at the University of East Anglia (2011 - 2015)

Highlights

• Director of England's first postgraduate degree in astrobiology, launched in 2023.

• Early climatological characterisation of (2020)

•  (NPMP) with the at NASA Ames Research Center from 2016 to 2018.

• Assisted in the development of the (2018)

• Contributed to detailed and comprehensive Ìý(2016)

• Updated estimates of in 2013

• Shortlisted for the Guardian and Wellcome Trust Science Writing Prize in 2012.

Administrative responsibilities

• Programme Director for MSc. Astrobiology

Visiting posts

• Honorary Research Associate, University College London, 01 November 2021

Professional memberships

• Committee Member of the Astrobiology Society of Britain (ASB)

ORCID

Research

Research interests

• Biogeochemical controls on planetary habitability
• Terrestrial exoplanet characterisation, atmospheric dynamics, land/ocean/atmospheric feedbacks
• Biosignatures

Research overview

Andrew's research interests are primarily focused within the broad discipline of planetary habitability and the distribution of habitable environments in the Galaxy. In particular, processes that maintain the long-term climate stability of terrestrial planets, biogeochemical and climate/physical feedback mechanisms within the planet system, atmospheric dynamics and evolution, as well as biosignature detection. 

He completed a Ph.D in Biogeochemistry at the University of East Anglia's Centre for Oceanic and Atmospheric Science (COAS) in 2015, where his thesis research was focused on the carbonate-silicate cycle and the long-term habitability of Earth-like planets.

Andrew secured a NASA Postdoctoral Management Fellowship at NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) in Mountain View, California in 2016. His responsibilities at NASA ARC were split between the management of NASA's novel astrobiology Research Coordination Network (RCN) the Nexus for Exoplanet Systems Science (NExSS) and continuing his research in planetary habitability. Along with the rest of the NExSS management team, he was involved in shaping the direction of astrobiology policy and funding at NASA and the adoption of the novel RCN model to the astrobiology program.

Andrew moved on to the University of California Irvine (UCI) in 2018 and joined the Department of Physics and Astronomy as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Astronomy. At UCI he worked closely with Professor Aomawa Shields to grow her research group and establish UCI as a center for exoplanet climate research. The research focus at SCECIE was land and ice-albedo feedbacks and the atmospheric characterisation of Earth-like planets around M-dwarf stars.

Research Centres and Institutes

• Lecturer in Astrobiology,

Supervision and teaching

Supervision

Supervisions within ÌÇÐÄlogoÈë¿Ú:

1

I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students who are interested in undertaking research in planetary habitability, biogeochemical processes and climate feedback mechanisms, biosignatures, and the atmospheric characterisation of terrestrial exoplanets.

Current doctoral researchers

• HANNAH WOODWARD

  Nature of supervision:

  PRINCIPAL SUPERVISOR, Mar 2023

  Title of thesis:

  Atmospheric modelling of tidally-locked exoplanets

Teaching

From 2022:

• Introduction to Astrobiology (Level 5)

From 2023:

• Frontiers in Astrobiology (Level 6)
• Foundations of Astrobiology (Level 7)

Teaching modules

• Astrobiology Analogue Rover Mission
• Introduction to Astrobiology
• Methods in Natural Sciences I
• Frontiers in Astrobiology
• Introduction to Planetary Science and Space Exploration
• Research Topics in Astrobiology and Planetary Science
• Foundations of Astrobiology

Publications

External Repositories

Business and community

Outreach