Talk – tomorrow, Tuesday 8^th February 08.30-09.15 on Zoom, questions 09.15-09.30

Speaker:

1. Sergio Ioppolo, School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom

Title: Laboratory ice astrochemistry in the era of JWST

Abstract:

Complex organic species are expected to be formed in a variety of interstellar environments at the surface of ice grains by means of a combination of energetic and nonenergetic processing, e.g., photons, electrons, ions, and atoms. However, to date, many fundamental questions on the physicochemical origin of the observed molecular complexity in space and its link to life on Earth remain unanswered. The recent successful launch and deployment of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a remarkable milestone, marking the onset of a new era for space science, astrophysics, astrochemistry, and astrobiology. The unprecedented combination of JWST and the ground-based Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) will respectively map and characterize the ice and the gas content of the interstellar medium toward a variety of space environments and physicochemical conditions, revolutionizing our understanding of the star formation process. Therefore, there is now an urgent need for new emerging laboratory techniques to match large astronomical datasets and guide future space missions. In this talk, I will review my past work and discuss my recent efforts to build a large (inter)national network in all the key research areas of laboratory, modelling, and observational astronomy including awarded JWST and ALMA beamtime. I will then present the research program I aim to develop at Aarhus University (AU), which includes the implementation of novel 3D printing lithographic techniques to better understand surface effects at the ice-substrate interface when exposed to ions, electrons, and atoms. I will discuss how building a larger laboratory astrochemistry group with access to several in-house experimental setups will make the AU one of the world[1]leading centres of excellence in astrochemistry. I will then show how my work can further strengthen internal synergies among the existing strategic research centers (InterCat, iNANO, iMAT, and ISA) and how I will manage (inter)national large-scale laboratory facility end[1]stations to address the “Grand Challenges” in astrochemistry of the next decade.

Link to Zoom meeting: https://aarhusuniversity.zoom.us/j/66235216757