Spotlight

PhD candidate and graduate research assistant Alex Deans-Rowe was presented with a William Emerson Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award at the 2025 El-Sayed Spring Research Symposium on May 8, 2025. Congratulations, Alex!

April 25, 2025. PI Loren Williams’s Faculty Support Coordinator, Research Admin Manager Keisha Durggin, along with Transuranic Chemistry Center of Research Excellence (TRU CoRE) PI Henry La Pierre and Research Scientist Julie Niklas, received a 2025 Georgia Tech Research… Read more: Keisha Durggin receives EVPR Institute Research Award

iCOOL Principal Investigator Loren Williams spoke on The Origins of Life on Earth and in the Universe at the University of Washington as part of a Spring 2025 Astrobiology Colloquium Series. The series is hosted… Read more: PI Loren Williams speaks at UW Astrobiology Colloquium

The Center for Integration of the Origins of Life (iCOOL) demonstrated “Chilling with Science: Cool Beyond Belief” at the kickoff of the 12th Atlanta Science Festival by the Georgia Tech community on March 8, 2025.… Read more: iCOOL celebrates STEAM at the Atlanta Science Festival

November 1, 2024. PI Loren Williams, Co-I Eric Smith, and PhD student Vahab Rajaei participated in the Workshop on Information, Selection, and Evolution (WISE) at the Carnegie Science Earth and Planets Laboratory in Washington, D.C.,… Read more: iCOOL participates in the WISE in Washington, D.C.

September 15, 2024. Center for Integration of the Origins of Life Co-I Anton Petrov was invited to speak at the University of Houston on September 11, 2024. His presentation on the Origins of Evolution and… Read more: Co-I Anton Petrov speaks at the University of Houston

August 19, 2024. Congratulations and farewell to Kavita Matange, who is leaving for Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL). Kavita is a CSHL Postdoctoral Fellow in the Cifani Laboratory.

August 1, 2024. Dr. Pau Capera Aragonès, a theoretical scientist, joined PI Loren Williams’ Lab at Georgia Tech as a postdoctoral fellow. Pau joins us from iCOOL Collaborator Moran Frenkel-Pinter’s lab at the Hebrew University… Read more: Welcome Dr. Pau Capera Aragonès, postdoctoral fellow

July 19, 2024. iCOOL artist in residence Hannah Usadi worked with PI Loren Williams to develop an original artwork comic called “Water and the Origin of Life”. The comic was displayed in the art show… Read more: Hannah Usadi receives ArtiSci and Fan Favorite awards!

The Center for Integration of the Origins of Life welcomed Co-I Zoe Todd from the University of Wisconsin-Madison for a Special Seminar on July 11, 2024. Dr. Todd spoke on Astronomy to Chemistry, towards a… Read more: Co-I Zoe Todd speaks at Georgia Tech

May 16, 2024. Undergraduate researchers Amelfa Rose Bleyl and Octavio Calvo are Georgia Tech graduates! Rose received a BS in Chemistry and Octavio a BS in Biology. Both are pursuing graduate research.

May 16, 2024. The Center for Integration of the Origins of Life (iCOOL) hosted a mini symposium entitled “The art of origins: biopolymers, water, and other players near the origins of life” on May 14,… Read more: iCOOL holds a mini symposium for the astrobiology community

May 10, 2024. The Center for Integration of the Origins of Life convened in Providence, RI for AbSciCon 2024 on May 5-10, 2024. PI Loren Williams, Co-Is Jessica Bowman, Jennifer Glass, Anton Petrov, Eric Smith,… Read more: iCOOL presents at AbSciCon 2024

May 8, 2024. Co-I Jessica Bowman received the College of Sciences (CoS) Research Faculty Community Trailblazer Award at the 2024 CoS Spring Sciences Celebration.

May 2, 2024. Kavita Matange received her PhD in Biochemistry at the Spring 2024 Georgia Tech commencement exercises.

April 9, 2024. Kavita successfully defends her PhD thesis entitled “Chemical Evolution at the Origins of Life: An experimental and conceptual framework.”