It was our pleasure to welcome Prof. Didier Queloz for our first annual Habitability GRP keynote lecture. Prof. Queloz shared the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics with Michel Mayor and James Peebles, for discovering the first exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like star, 51 Pegasi b. We were treated to a fascinating overview of past, present and future efforts to find life on worlds outside the Solar System. Upcoming missions like JWST and PLATO will probe more effectively than ever before, edging us ever-closer to answering the age-old question: are we alone?

We are delighted to announce that Habitability has been selected as one of Warwick's Global Research Priorities (GRPs), which play a crucial role in interdisciplinary research at the University. The GRPs respond to complex multi-faceted global problems that can only be tackled through collaborative research excellence. They unite academics from different disciplines to address some of humanity’s most urgent questions, and create fertile ground for new ideas to flourish and interdisciplinary research to grow - enabling us to improve the lives of people around the world.

The four key themes of the GRP are outlined here. There are a number of funding opportunities for relevant research projects - see here for further detail.

Dimitri Veras leads an interdisciplinary team of astronomers and biologists in a study exploring the dynamical and biological constraints of interplanetary panspermia. This is the theory that life can hop from planet to planet via some mechanism, most likely aboard asteroids or comets.

This work was published in Astrobiology, Volume 18, Number 9

Open access link: arXiv

CEH members involved: Dimitri Veras (lead), David Armstrong, James Blake, Jose Gutiérrez-Marcos & Hendrik Schäefer

The next installment in the CEH seminar series, "Visions of Habitability", will take place on Tuesday 12th April. The speaker will be Hendrik Schäfer from the University of Warwick's School of Life Sciences; a period of discussion will follow the presentation.

The CEH is pleased to announce the launch of a new, monthly seminar series: "Visions of Habitability".

The seminar series will feature short research papers, primarily from members of the CEH (with occasional invited speakers), and will feature a significant period of time dedicated to discussion. All are welcome.

The first seminar will take place on the 8th of March, and will feature a paper by Chloe Pugh.