PhD summer school: Dust to DNA

Copenhagen 18-22 august 2025

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

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

Already confirmed teachers

Hannah Diamond-Lowe (Space Telescope Science Institute, USA)
Jens Hoeijmakers(Lund University, Sweden)
Kristin Johnson-Finn (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA)
Dante Lauretta (University of Arizona - PI OSIRIS-REx)
Hannes Mutschler (Dortmund University)
Martin Bizzarro (Globe - University of Copenhagen)
James Connelly (Globe - University of Copenhagen)
Anders Johansen (Globe - University of Copenhagen)
Elishevah van Kooten (Globe - University of Copenhagen)
Michiel Lambrechts (Globe - University of Copenhagen)
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.

To register:
Step 1: please email michiel.lambrechts@sund.ku.dk with your name and host institute
Step 2 - only needed if you are a PhD student: Please register on the webpage of the PhD school
If you are not a PhD student at a Danish university, you registration will only be confirmed after the enrollment deadline.
If accepted, international PhD students will be asked to pay the course fee (3480 dkk, ~465 euro) before the course starts. 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 step-1 email).

The registration deadline (31/05/2025) has passed. Please contact michiel.lambrechts@sund.ku.dk if you are interested in joining, we likely have some free places left!

Other schools and meetings in Copenhagen of interest

Organisation

Please feel free to reach out to us with any questions you may have:
Michiel Lambrechts - michiel.lambrechts@sund.ku.dk
Elishevah van Kooten - elishevah.vankooten@sund.ku.dk
Anders Johansen - anders.johansen@sund.ku.dk
Martin Schiller - schiller@sund.ku.dk
Richard Löffler - richard.loffler@sund.ku.dk
Lizxandra Flores Rivera - lizxandra.rivera@sund.ku.dk

Program

This course corresponds to 3.7 ects - but you can set the ects individually with your respective PhD school.

Monday 18/8 – Formation and the evolution of the first solids in protoplanetary disks
with Michiel Lambrechts and Anders Johansen

09:00-09:30 Intro to school, practicalities and setting up work groups
09:30-10:30 Michiel Lambrechts – Protoplanetary discs: from dust to pebbles
10:30-11:00 Coffee break with snacks
11:00-12:00 Anders Johansen – Planet formation
12:00-13:00 Lunch at Maersk Tower
13:00-14:00 Anders Johansen – Planetary differentation and early atmospheres
14:00-14:15 Coffee break
14:15-15:00 Haiyang Wang – Planetary composition
15:30-18:00 Poster and mingle session

Tuesday 19/8 – Exoplanets
with Jens Hoeijmakers and Hannah Diamond-Lowe

09:00-09:15 Recap of the previous day
09:15-10:30 Jens Hoeijmakers - Exoplanet detection methods
10:30-11:00 Coffee break
11:00-12:00 Jens Hoeijmakers - Exoplanet characterization
12:00-14:00 Lunch at Maersk Tower
14:00-15:00 Hannah Diamond-Lowe - The exoplanet sample
15:00-15:15 Coffee break with snacks
15:15-16:00 Hannah Diamond-Lowe - Exoplanets: looking ahead
18:00-20:30 Boat tour

Wednesday 20/8 – Cosmochemistry: insights from Extra-terrestrial samples
with Martin Schiller, Martin Bizzarro and James Connelly

09:00-09:15 Recap of the previous day
09:15-10:30 Martin Schiller - The formation of our Solar System: from Meteorites and Missions
10:30-11:00 Coffee break
11:00-12:00 Martin Bizzarro - TBD
12:00-14:00 Lunch at Under Uret - afternoon session at the museum
14:00-16:00 James Connelly - StarPlan lab tour

09:00-09:15 Recap of the previous day
09:15-10:30 Elishevah van Kooten - TBD
10:30-11:00 Coffee break
11:00-12:00 Dante Lauretta - Bennu
12:00-13:30 Lunch (outdoors)
13:30-14:30 Dante Lauretta - Bennu
14:30-14:45 Coffee break
14:45-15:30 Kristin Johnson-Finn - Intro to origin of life
15:30-16:00 Coffee break
16:00-17:00 Kristin Johnson-Finn - Intro to origin of life
19:00-20:00 (optional) excursion to Cisternerne

Friday 22/8 – Evolution of life
with Richard Löffler and Hannes Mutschler

09:00-09:15 Recap of the previous day
09:15-10:30 Richard Löffler - Evolution before RNA/DNA
10:30-11:00 Coffee break
11:00-12:00 Hannes Mutschler
12:00-13:30 Goodbye lunch together

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 02/06)