John Malloy
PhD Candidate, School of Earth and Space Exploration
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Research Interests: I am interested in the evolution of life, both here on Earth and potentially on other planets. Particularly, I am fascinated by the evolutionary transition from non-living chemical reactions to living biochemical systems. There are a number of unique properties of life that arise as a result of this transition, such as the homochirality of chemical reactions, where one chiral form of a molecule is used over another. I hope to elucidate those chemical reactions that led to the spread of chirality throughout biochemical systems and evaluate the potential universality of this property of life.
Education: B.S. in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology from University of Maryland, Baltimore County. M.A. in Teaching from Notre Dame of Maryland University Personal: As a former high school science teacher, I am passionate about finding ways to introduce science to learners of all ages in an interactive, engaging manner. To that end, I am a NASA Space Grant fellow, where I work with the Arizona Department of Corrections to tutor students in juvenile corrections facilities in Earth and Space science. I also teach outdoor education through the Sky School Education Program at the University of Arizona, and teach computation through the Santa Fe Institute. Outside of research and teaching, I enjoy training for and competing in ultra-marathons through the Southwest. I am also originally from Baltimore, Maryland and am still trying to convince Arizonans (and everyone else) that everything is better with Old Bay on it. |