Welcome to Oliver and Shaun

We are thrilled that we have two new members of the team:

Shunsuke Nozaki. Shun is a PhD student at the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI), Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan. As part of his doctoral research, he is spending a year with us at The Open University as a visiting student. His interest in icy worlds began with a fascination with the mysteries and allure of cryovolcanism. Through experiments and simulations, he investigates subsurface liquid environments and their evolution. In his previous work, Shun conducted high-pressure viscosity measurements of aqueous solutions relevant to subsurface oceans on Jupiter's Galilean satellites using a diamond anvil cell. He also performed molecular dynamics simulations of gas hydrate formation within subsurface oceans on Titan, Pluto, and other TNOs . During his PhD and with us, he is conducting experiments to gain a deeper understanding of the freezing processes of brines in icy worlds. Shun says "Having spent most of my life in Japan, I am excited to take this step abroad and to work and discuss science with such inspiring colleagues."

Oliver Pattle. Olly is a PhD student within AstrobiologyOU using near real-time analytical methods to mitigate contamination within spacecraft cleanrooms, on an STFC CASE studentship with Airbus Defence and Space. In space, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) can release from materials and can cause downstream implications. The main concerns are damaging critical spacecraft components and posing a risk to planetary protection – possibly causing false positive detections in the search for life on other planets.

His scientific interests are in helping the development of human space exploration and the search for life. His previous research at the UK Centre for Astrobiology in Edinburgh was on In-Situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU). Here, he investigated a bacteria (Ideonella sakaiensis) and its ability to biodegrade synthetic plastic found in spacecraft multi-layer insulation (Mylar) and Earth waste. The aim here was to use new biotechnologies to recycle waste in-situ.   Olly's PhD is titled" Development and validation of innovative, near real-time analytical tools to enable mitigation of contamination within cleanrooms of the UK spacecraft & satellite industry."