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First 果冻影院-PKU Planetary Science and Astrobiology Summer School

18 September 2023

The first 果冻影院-PKU Planetary Science and Astrobiology Summer School exchange programme for four students, two from 果冻影院 Earth Sciences and two from Peking University, China, was a great success, as described by 果冻影院 host Professor Dominic Papineau.

The four exchange students and 果冻影院 hosts sitting at a table and smiling at the camera

The first 果冻影院-PKU Planetary Science and Astrobiology Summer School was held for four weeks in April-May in the UK and four weeks in June in China. Two students from 果冻影院, Princess Buma-At (fourth year MSci in Earth Sciences) and Mark Lee (third year BSc in Natural Sciences), and two students from Peking University, Ruimin Wang (third year PhD student in Astrobiology) and Tianyi Jia (first year PhD student in Planetary Science) participated in the exchange program.

At 果冻影院, the visiting PKU students engaged in research on lunar grains from lunar soils and banded iron formations from the early Earth. They were trained in polarising microscopy and micro-Raman spectroscopy and were able to collect significant datasets for their PhD research. 果冻影院 hosts, headed by Professor聽Dominic Papineau, also engaged in team-bonding activities, museum visits, and organised many presentations on various ongoing astrobiology projects at 果冻影院. Both Tianyi and Ruiming had a great time in London and a very positive experience with this exchange program.

Princess Buma-At pointing towards her research poster while explaining her work to two other attendeees
At PKU, the visiting 果冻影院 students engaged in research on putative Precambrian algae microfossils and the abiotic lunar carbon cycle. PKU hosts, headed by Professor聽Bing Shen, enabled the two 果冻影院 students to do optical microscopy on relevant Precambrian specimens. They also organised a visit to an extraterrestrial sample curation facility in Beijing, performed a geology field trip in the Ediacaran of south China (Hubei and Hunan), and all participated in a conference on Earth Systems Science in Shanghai. Both 果冻影院 students presented a poster of their research at that conference and Princess even received an outstanding聽poster prize at that meeting. Both Mark and Princess met great scientific colleagues and also enjoyed sight-seeing tours around Beijing.

Overall, this exchange program stimulated new innovative research on the abiotic lunar carbon cycle and on biosignatures of microscopic lifeforms from the early Earth. The 果冻影院-PKU Planetary Science and Astrobiology Summer School also created new scientific collaboration opportunities and it produced new friendships for these students. It is hoped that this will continue in 2025聽and that another generation of young, talented and international astrobiologists and planetary scientists will continue to benefit from such formidable academic experiences.

Images

  • Feature image, from left to right:聽 Exchange students Princess Buma-At (果冻影院 ES), Mark Lee (果冻影院 Natural Sciences), Tianyi Jia (PKU), Ruiming Wang (PKU), Zixiao Guo (果冻影院 ES), and Dominic Papineau (果冻影院 ES). Credit: D. Papineau.
  • Inset: Princess Buma-At with her research poster at聽the 7th Conference on Earth System Science (CESS 2023) in Shanghai, for which she was awarded an 'Outstanding Poster' award. Credit: P. Buma-At.

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