The EAI Academy
During the academic year 2021 – 2022, the European Astrobiology Institute (EAI) is organising the EAI Academy, a series of 16 didactic talks and discussions by experts in the field.
The seminars are offered for free and will be streamed online via zoom every two weeks on Wednesday from 3:00 to 4:00 PM CET.
The EAI Academy will provide a framework to meet online with the European astrobiology community and to acquire interdisciplinary knowledge through a series of seminars given by experts in these fields. Each session will include a 30-40 minute didactic talk given by an expert. The talk will be followed by about 20 minutes of questions and answers.
List of Presenters & Topics
October 13th, 2021
Armando Azua-Bustos
CAB (Spain)
Is Mars too dry for life as we know it?
All life on Earth is based on water, explaining why on Mars, we search for water as a proxy for life. In this talk, I will share my findings on how life has adapted to the extreme environmental conditions of the Atacama Desert, by far the driest and oldest desert on Earth, and what can this tell us about where to look for life on the red planet.
October 27th, 2021
What we learned about Enceladus using Cassini Mass Spectrometry
Hunter Waite
South West Research Institute (US)
November 24th, 2021
Could Earth have Desert and Ocean Planet Siblings with Plate Tectonics?
Tilman Spohn
ISSI/DLR (Switzerland/Germany)
December 8th, 2021
Defining planetary habitability with the aid of climate models
Giovanni Vladilo
University of Trieste (Italy)
January 26th, 2022
The Pathway to Prebiotic Chemistry: molecular precursors from space
Victor Rivilla
CAB (Spain)
February 9th, 2022
Searching for evidence of life on subterranean Mars: Prospects and Challenges
Charity Philips-Lander
South West Research Institute (US)
March 9th, 2022
Microbial life in lava caves: astrobiological implications
Diana Northup
University of New Mexico (US),
March 23rd, 2022
Liquid water on Exoplanets and the Habitable Zone
Amri Wandel
University of Jerusalem (Israel)
April 6th, 2022
The Marine Deep-Subsurface Biosphere
Jan Amend
University of Southern California (US)
April 20th, 2022
Hydrothermal systems – life in the dark
Anna Neubeck
Uppsala University (Sweden)
May 4th, 2022
Outer solar system formation and evolution
Olivier Mousis
CNRS (France)
May 18th, 2022
What Mars can teach us about the habitability of terrestrial planets
Doris Breuer
DLR (Germany)
June 1st, 2022
Life inside the rocks: microbial diversity and metabolisms in the deep subsurface
Victor Parro
CAB (Spain)
Frequently asked questions
The seminars offer a wide range of topics, such as: “Trips to the outer solar system”, “Habitability of ExoPlanets”, “Life in the dark” and “CoEvolotion of planetary geospheres, atmospheres, and biospheres”.
The sessions will be hosted by the Center for Astrobiology (CAB). If you wish to be included in the EAI-Academy email distribution list to receive the zoom link and meeting access code, please write your full name, institutional affiliation and contact email here.
The CAB will deliver a certificate of participation to those who attend at least 10 seminars. The audience registration will take place, during each session, in the zoom session chat where each member of the audience will include their full name, institution and email for our registration. The individual final certificate will include each of the seminars the applicant has attended.
Additionally, the University of Tartu will award 3 ECTS and a digitally stamped certificate to those who attend a minimum of 10 lectures and complete either a short review of the topic of their own choosing from the list of the EAI Academy lecture series or create a Wikipedia entry about a subject of their choice covered by the seminar, and peer-review one home assignment by a fellow participant.
If you wish to receive credits, you must register for the continuing learning program at the University of Tartu here and send an email to riho.motlep(at)ut.ee, providing your contact information (Name, Country of Residence, affiliation) before the 31st October 2021.
The seminars will be recorded and made available permanently on the CAB YouTube channel.