Jessica Caughtry

PhD Student

Department of Space and Climate Physics

Jess is a PhD student funded through the London NERC Doctoral Training Programme, based primarily at UCL and secondarily associated with Natural History Museum. She obtained an Oceanography MSci degree at the University of Southampton, before spending two years working at the European Space Agency at their ESRIN institute in Italy where she further grew her passion for space science. 
 
Her current project mixes environmental science with astrobiology, researching the geochemistry, physics and extremophile microbiology associated with sulphur-ice environments, and applying this knowledge as an analogue for icy moons like Europa. This largely involves balancing time between working in the cold rooms at UCL Earth sciences, where she makes different ices and analyses them using mid-IR spectroscopy, and culturing microorganisms in the biology labs at the NHM. 
 
Outside of academia, Jess spends most of her time training for triathlons and long-distance sports events, while trying her best (not always successfully) to avoid crashing her bike.