Meet the Fellows Research Bridging laboratory experiments and observations to explore molecular transformations that set the stage for planetary formation and organic life. Host University Harvard University Year Awarded 2025 Website Professional Page Julia Santos Ph.D. candidate, Astronomy, Leiden University Research Bridging laboratory experiments and observations to explore molecular transformations that set the stage for planetary formation and organic life. Host University Harvard University Year Awarded 2025 Website Professional Page “If we want to understand the raw ingredients available to forming planets, we need to understand how chemistry evolves through different stages of star and planet formation. How much of it is inherited through these stages and ends up in planets? That’s the question I’m trying to answer.” Julia Santos Long before stars ignite, clouds of gas and dust form molecules that undergo complex reactions, eventually becoming the ingredients for planets. While direct experiments on these distant environments are impossible, Julia Santos recreates their chemistry here on Earth. Ms. Santos investigates the organic molecules within ices that cover dust grains to understand the chemical environment in which planets assemble and life could emerge. She uses setups that achieve very low temperatures within a vacuum environment to simulate the extreme conditions of interstellar space in tandem with observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and JWST to guide and validate her experiments. As one highlight of her research, Ms. Santos reproduced a major formation pathway for widely observed methanol ice (CH₃OH), a simple yet significant molecule that is a precursor for more sophisticated compounds required for organic life. Her results challenged assumptions about how methanol forms and provided much-needed detail on how it is produced in space. An artist’s impression of the water snowline around a young star (V883 Orionis). The water snowline marks the region in a protoplanetary disk where water transitions from ice to gas due to the heat from the young star. Credit: A. Angelich (NRAO/AUI/NSF)/ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO) Ms. Santos’ scientific journey has involved the continuous pursuit of new questions, initially sparked by conversations with her astronomer father. Today her passion for science centers in the lab and extends far beyond. Ms. Santos contributes to free science initiatives, public talks, podcasts, and live broadcasts to share her research and promote critical thinking. During her fellowship, Ms. Santos will shift from studying the origins of molecules to investigating their fate as they are exposed to heat from young stars. Her three main projects will use lab experiments, analysis of ALMA data, and insights from JWST to offer a comprehensive picture of molecular transformations during planet formation. By merging laboratory simulations with cutting-edge observations, her work promises to unlock exciting discoveries in the years ahead. Ms. Santos will receive a Ph.D. in astronomy from Leiden University in Summer 2025.