Sara Shields Studies Astrobiology in Spain

Sara Shields Studies Astrobiology in Spain

Sara Shields is a third-year PhD student working with Associate Professor Anna Szynkiewicz to study environmental processes controlling the formation of evaporitic salts and microbial activity in dry and nutrient depleted settings on both Earth and Mars.

This past summer, Shields successfully applied for a 2023 scholarship to the International Summer School in Astrobiology held yearly in Santander, Spain. The Josep Comas i Solà International Astrobiology Summer School is co-sponsored by the NASA Astrobiology Program and the Centro de Astrobiologia.

This year’s school focused on icy ocean world investigations and provided lectures from international experts, opportunity for peer-to-peer round table discussions, and development of student projects. In addition, the school provided an opportunity for the students to visit the Astroland Interplanetary agency, the Altamira Museum to see and learn about Paleolithic cave art, and to El Soplao caves, which is a site of astrobiological interest. 

The Astrobiology Summer School lectures focused on ocean worlds orbiting giant planets in our solar system including Enceladus, Europa, Ganymede, and Titan as key astrobiological targets for future exploration by both NASA and ESA missions.

Lectures were provided by outstanding international experts including Morgan Cable from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Shannon MacKenzie from the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Olga Prieto Ballesteros from El Centro de Astrobiología, and Nicolas Altobelli from the European Space Agency. Overviews of icy ocean world surfaces and future missions from an astrobiological perspective along with reviews of current laboratory and analog field work allowed students to create ideas for collaborative future projects.