PhD summer school: Dust to DNA

Copenhagen 17-21 august 2026

A one-week course, aimed at PhD students, that covers the journey from interstellar dust to habitable planets and the conditions for the origins and evolution of life.

The lectures, including hands-on sessions, are taught by an international team of experts and have an interdisciplinary focus. We approach planet formation, exoplanet systems and the potential for life to emerge, using perspectives from astronomy, cosmochemistry, geology, and biology.

Already confirmed teachers

Hannah Diamond-Lowe (Space Telescope Science Institute, USA)
Jens Hoeijmakers (Lund University, Sweden)
Martina Preiner (MPI-Marburg, Germany)
Ebbe Sloth Andersen (Aarhus University)
Martin Bizzarro (Globe - University of Copenhagen)
James Connelly (Globe - University of Copenhagen)
Jens Frydenvang (Globe - University of Copenhagen)
Anders Johansen (Globe - University of Copenhagen)
Elishevah van Kooten (Globe - University of Copenhagen)
Michiel Lambrechts (Globe - University of Copenhagen)
Emil Laust Kristoffersen (iNANO - Aarhus University)
Richard Löffler (Globe - University of Copenhagen)
Martin Schiller (Globe - University of Copenhagen)
Haiyang Wang (Globe - University of Copenhagen)

Location

Globe Institute at the University of Copenhagen

Lectures at the top floor of the Maersk Tower and at the Natural History Museum of Denmark

Registration

We welcome all PhD students in the fields of astronomy, cosmochemistry, geology, astrobiology and other fields related to planetary sciences. Postdocs are also welcome to apply.

The registration deadline is 31/05/2026.

To register: please email michiel.lambrechts@sund.ku.dk with your name and host institute.

There is no registration fee for the course. For travel and accommodation, some students may be eligible for financial support via the COST action The birth of solar systems (PLANETS) through a Young Researcher and Innovator Conference grant (if interested, please let me know in the email).

Organisation

Please feel free to reach out to us with any questions you may have:
Elishevah van Kooten (course organiser) - elishevah.vankooten@sund.ku.dk
Michiel Lambrechts (course co-organiser) - michiel.lambrechts@sund.ku.dk
Emil Laust Kristoffersen (course co-organiser) - emillk@inano.au.dk
Anders Johansen - anders.johansen@sund.ku.dk
Martin Schiller - schiller@sund.ku.dk
Richard Löffler - richard.loffler@sund.ku.dk
Adrien Houge - adrien.houge@sund.ku.dk

Program

This course corresponds to approximately 4 ects - but you can set the ects individually with your respective PhD school.

The course program will be made available later. In the meantime, one can explore last year's program. Or the one from one year earlier.

Learning objectives

1. Knowledge

• The major goal of this course is that, by the end of the course, students should be able to comfortably describe, in general terms, our current understanding on the evolution from cosmic dust to planets, as well as the basic conditions needed for life to emerge on Earth-like planets
• Explain in words the following key concepts of planet formation: the interstellar medium, star formation, the origin of planetary discs, pebble drift, planetesimal formation, pebble accretion, modern observatories (ALMA, JWST)
• Explain in words the following key concepts of cosmochemistry and planetary composition: isotopic differences between meteorites, dating of meteorites, planetary differentiation, oxygen fugacity, D/H in the Solar System
• Explain in words the following key concepts of exoplanet studies: exoplanet detection methods, the current exoplanet sample, exoplanet characterization, the habitable zone
• Explain in words the following key concepts of astrobiology: LUCA, prebiotic chemistry (Urrey-Miller), membranes, RNA-world, hydrothermal systems, biosignatures
• The basic workings of a modern (cosmochemistry) lab environment

2. Skills

• Communicate your research within an interdisciplinary context
• Collaborate in small interdisciplinary work groups
• Network in an interdisciplinary environment
• Perform and reproduce short theory calculations related to key concepts
• Recognize meteorites and go towards categorizing them

3. Competences

• By the course's end, students are expected to be able to discuss and evaluate the differences between competing leading models within planet formation and evolution, the study of exoplanets, and origin of life studies
• Effectively find and access the scientific literature for further in-depth study
• Formulate interdisciplinary research questions
• Discuss and elaborate on different definitions of life

Registered Participants

(last update 9/03)