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

Dante Lauretta (University of Arizona - PI OSIRIS-REx)
Laurie Barge (NASA JPL, USA)
Martin Bizzarro (Globe - University of Copenhagen)
James Connelly (Globe - University of Copenhagen)
Hannah Diamond-Lowe (Space Telescope Science Institute, USA)
Jens Hoeijmakers (Lund University, Sweden)
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.

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.

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

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)