JANUSZ PĘTKOWSKI
I am interested in research leading to finding life on exoplanets, biosignature gases and theoretical biochemistry.
So far Earth is the only known inhabited planet.
Yet it is known that the laws of physics and chemistry are universal and the same in every 'corner' of the observable Universe. Can we say the same about biology? Can we identify any universal laws of biology? I study these questions using cheminformatics computer simulations as an aid in designing future laboratory experiments.
2021 – present
MIT Research Affiliate
2019 – 2021
Research Scientist at MIT
2015 – 2019
Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT
2013 – 2015
Marie Curie ETH-Fellow at ETH-Zürich
2006 – 2012
PhD degree in Biophysics, UVA
I am Deputy PI on the Venus Life Finder Mission Concept Study.
I am one of the founding members of the Polish Astrobiological Society.
RECENT ARTICLES
August 13, 2020
The Venusian Lower Atmosphere Haze as a Depot for Desiccated Microbial Life: A Proposed Life Cycle for Persistence of the Venusian Aerial Biosphere
We revisit the hypothesis that there is life in the Venusian clouds to propose a life cycle that resolves the conundrum of how life can persist aloft for hundreds of millions to billions of years.
