EANA - European Astrobiology Network Association

Students Contest "Space Factor"

Since 2011, the EANA Students Contest "Space Factor" has been organized during the annual EANA Astrobiology Conference (contact person: Dr. Ralf Moeller, Institute of Aerospace Medicine, DLR). The contest is one of several EANA education and support activities for young scientists in Astrobiology.
At each EANA conference, a session is dedicated solely to the EANA students contest, where early-career scientists (PhD students or Post-Docs) present their research to all other participants of the conference, being evaluated by five different astrobiology experts.

Poster awards

It is a tradition of EANA to award prizes for the best posters presented by students and young scientists at the annual workshops. A distinguished team of astrobiologists evaluates the posters based the scientific and presentation quality.

We thank the jury members for evaluating the contributions of all ten participants of the "Space Factor" students contest. The jury consisted of several members of the EANA council and EANA members. The winners were awarded with a cash prize and a book prize donated by the publishers Springer and the International Journal of Astrobiology / Cambridge University Press. The winners were awarded by EANA`s President Frances Westall and Students Contest chairs Ralf Möller and Lena Noack during the closing session of EANA 2018.

All participants of the 2018 "Space Factor" students contest together with the EANA president Frances Westall (left) and student contest main organizer Ralf Möller (right) and the winner of the Kate Rubins - Space Microbiology Award.

1st prize
Peter M. Higgins and Charles Cockell
A New Model to Estimate Energy Flow and Biomass in Terrestrial and Extraterrestrial Environments

2nd prize
Marta Cortesao et al.
Fungi in space: Implications for astronaut health and planetary protection

3rd prize
Maria Cavallius et al.
Water Vapour in the Beta Pictoris Debris Disk

4th prize
Mariano Battistuzzi et al.
An experimental setup to study by remote sensing analyses cyanobacteria growth and photosynthetic performances under non-terrestrial simulated environments

5th prize
Arjen Boosman et al.
UV-induced methane and volatile organic carbon emission from the Murchison carbonaceous chondrite

In addition, two new prizes were awarded for early-career researcher presentations. The Kate Rubins - Space Microbiology Award for Young Researchers was awarded to Katharina Siems.

The winners of the new "Horneck-Brack-Award" donated by Frances Westall (2nd from left) and Jean-Pierre de Vera (right on the left picture). The winners are from left to right: Tim Lichtenberg, Dennis Höning and Nozair Khawaja (right picture).

A second new prize was given in the name of the founders of Astrobiology in Europe - the Horneck-Brack Award, initiated by Jean-Pierre de Vera and Karen Olsson-Francis.

1st prize
Nozair Khawaja et al.
Complex macromolecular organic material from the subsurface ocean of Enceladus

2nd prize
Tim Lichtenberg et al.
Gradual desiccation of rocky protoplanets from aluminum-26 heating

3rd prize
Dennis Höning et al.
Long-term water and carbon cycles and habitability of terrestrial planets

All posters of early career scientists were evaluated by a jury consisting of several members of EANA and DAbG.
The publisher Springer and the International Journal of Astrobiology / Cambridge University Press donated a book prize for all awardees. The winners were awarded by EANA`s President Frances Westall and the poster contest organizer Lena Noack during the closing session of EANA 2018.

List of awarded posters (random order):

Fabian Klenner et al.
Analog Mass Spectra of Astrobiologically Relevant Organic Material for Spaceborne Mass Spectrometers
Sebastian Wolf et al.
OREOcube - ORganics Exposure in Orbit: Photostability of organic molecules and biomarkers in space and planetary environments
Solmaz Adeli et al.
Phyllosilicates and chlorides in evaporitic setting as key targets in the search for life on Mars
Jacob Heinz et al.
Halotolerance of Planococcus halocryophilus in chloride and perchlorate brines
Prathana Desai et al.
Development of Compact Sensor System for Detection of Water Activity
Fabian Schmidt and Jan Hendrik Bredehöft
Interstellar formic acid by versatile water chemistry

We thank the jury members for evaluating the contributions of all eigth participants of the "Space Factor" students contest. The jury consisted of Rocco Mancinelli, Petra Rettberg, Daniela Billi, Silvano Onofri and Kensei Kobayashi. The winners were awarded with a cash prize, a one-year subscription to the journal Astrobiology, and a book prize donated by the publishers Springer and Cambridge University Press. The winners were awarded by EANA`s Vice-President Nils Holm and Students Contest chair Lena Noack during the closing session of EANA 17.

1st prize Alex Price, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK Autotrophy and biomineralisation of nitrate-dependent iron oxidisers on Mars-relevant mineral substrate
2nd prize Diana Boy, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Hannover, Germany Abundance of radiation-resistant bacteria along an aridity gradient in the Atacama Desert -- Are radiation- and desiccation resistance connected from the habitat perspective?
3rd prize Cyprien Verseux, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy Cyanobacteria as a substrate for heterotrophs -- Implications for biological life-support systems on Mars

From left to right: Isabell Wolf (Poster award), Diana Boy (2nd prize students contest), Theresa Backhaus (Poster award), Cyprien Verseux (3rd prize students contest), Philippe Nauny (Poster award), Mayvis Musariri (Sohan Jheeta award), Lara Maldanis (Sohan Jheeta award), Uyama Taichi (Poster award), Alex Price (1st prize students contest).

All posters of early career scientists were evaluated by a jury consisting of Jan Jehlicka, Rosa de la Torre Noetzel, Severine Robert, Kristina Beblo-Vranesevic, Kristina Kislyakova, Nils Holm, Nigel Mason and Elias Chatzitheodoridis.
The publishers Springer and Cambridge University Press donated a book prize for all four awardees. The winners were awarded by EANA`s Vice-President Nils Holm during the closing session of EANA 17.

List of awarded posters in alphabetical order:

Isabell Wolf, University of Hohenheim
co-authored by H. L. Pleyer, H. Strasdeit, S. Fox
Laboratory Simulation of the Thermal Racemization of L-Alanine in Tide Pools of Primordial Volcanic Islands
Theresa Backhaus, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
co-authored by S. Ott
Primary results of the analysis of the lichen Buellia frigida after 1.5 years of space exposure during the BIOMEX project
Uyama Taichi, University of Tokyo
co-authored by Hashimoto Jun, Kuzuhara Masayuki, Tamura Motohide, D. Brandt Timothy, Tanigawa Takayuki, Aoyama Yuhiko
Search for Exoplanet around Young Stellar Objects
Philippe Nauny, University of Glasgow
co-authored by K. Simutis, J. Nainys, L. Mazutis, M. R. Lee, J. L. Toney, V. R. Phoenix
Dry riverbed in the Atacama desert: a depth profile analysis for biosignatures

From left to right: EANA president Frances Westall, students contest winners Felix M. Fuchs, Camilla Calabrese und Hannes L. Pleyer, together with students contest organizer Ralf Möller

1st prize Camilla Calabrese, Università di Bologna, Dipartimento di Chimica "G. Ciamician", Italy High Resolution Millimeter Wave Absorption Spectroscopy: from the laboratory data to the astronomical surveys
2nd prize Felix Matthias Fuchs, German Aerospace Center (DLR e.V.), Institute of Aerospace Medicine, Radiation Biology Department, Space Microbiology Research Group, Germany Floating in space: Influence of simulated microgravity on Bacillus subtilis* biofilm formation - An electron microscopic study for whole biofilm analysis*
3rd prize Hannes L. Pleyer, University of Hohenheim, Institute of Chemistry, Department of Bioinorganic Chemistry, Germany Metalation of a Model Porphyrin in Simulated Primordial Tide Pools: Possible Prebiotic Formation of Porphyrin‐Type Cofactors

During EANA 16, all posters were evaluated by a jury consisting of K. Lehto, C. Muller, K. Finster, F. Westall, C. Panitz, S. Leuko and N. Holm.
The publisher Springer donated a book prize for all seven awardees. The winners were awarded by EANA`s President Frances Westall during the closing session of EANA 16.

From left to right: Marta Cortesao, Avinash Dass, EANA president Frances Westall, Marc-Nicolas Rentinck, Greta Lamers and Frederic Foucher

List of awarded posters in alphabetical order:

Marta Cortesao, co-authored by Ralf Möller
Space Vacuum: The Spores’ Forgotten Menace?
Avinash Vicholous Dass, co-authored by Hickman-Lewis Keyron, Brack André, Kee Terence, Westall Frances
Stochastic prebiotic chemistry within realistic geological systems
Frederic Foucher, co-authored by Nicolas Bost, Sylvain Janiec, Frances Westall, Pascal Perron, Aicha Fonte, Nicole Le Breton, Jianyu Li, Thomas Platel, Michel Tagger, Michel Viso, Pascale Chazalnoel, Frederic Courtade, Michel Villenave
LithoSpace: an automated system for in situ petrographic thin section preparation on Mars
Pauli Laine
Detecting biomarkers by means of teraherz remote sensing
Greta Lamers, co-authored by Stefan Leuko, Petra Rettberg
Repair of polychromatic radiation induced DNA damage in the archeon Halobacterium salinarum NRC-1
Marc-Nicolas Rentinck, co-authored by Alessandro Airo
Bioflumology: Cyanobacterial biomat morphologies under different fluid flow conditions
Jennifer Wadsworth, co-authored by Charles S. Cockell, Ralf Möller
The double-edged sword of Iron oxides: Their protective and destructive effects on life on the Early Earth and present-day Mars

1st and 3rd prize winners of the contest with the jury members and organizer of the student contest:
Franco Ferrari, Jean-Pierre de Vera, Iulia Myrgorodska, Maximilian Mora, André Brack, José Eduardo González-Pastor, Frances Westall and Ralf Möller.

1st prize Iuliia Myrgorodska, University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, France Asymmetric photolysis of chiral molecules of prebiotic importance at synchrotron SOLEIL
2nd prize Ruth-Sophie Taubner, Research Platform ExoLife, University of Vienna, Austria A new method for quantification of methane production of hydrogenotrophic methanogens
3rd prize Maximilian Mora, Center for medical research, Graz, Austria The swimming behaviour of hyperthermophiles – or: how to survive potential early Earth conditions

During EANA 15, all 64 posters were evaluated by a jury consisting of H. Lehto, C. Cockell, P. Rettberg, J. Brucato, H. Cottin, D. Billi and K. Finster.
The publishers Springer and Cambridge University Press donated a book prize for all seven awardees. The winners were awarded by EANA`s President Frances Westall and Honorary President Gerda Horneck during the closing session of EANA 15.

Organizers, awardees and jury members of the poster award:
Gerda Horneck, Frances Westall, Iulia Myrgorodska, Simone Martini, Carlos Banchon, Lena Noack, Ralf Möller (for Marina Raguse), Krzysztof Rychert, Kai Finster, Felix Matthias Fuchs, Harry Lehto and Daniela Billi.

List of awarded posters in alphabetical order:

Iulia Myrgorodska, University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, France, co-authored by Cornelia Meinert, Pierre de Marcellus, Louis le Sergeant d’Hendecourt, Laurent Nahon and Uwe J. Meierhenrich
Asymmetric photolysis of chiral molecules of prebiotic importance at synchrotron SOLEIL
Carlos Banchon, Microbial Systems Ecology, Department of microbiology, TU München, Freising, Germany / DLR, Köln, Germany, co-authored by Stefan Leuko, Petra Rettberg and Natuschka Lee
The potential use of halophiles for environmental management on and beyond Earth
Felix Matthias Fuchs, German Aerospace Center, Institute of Aerospace Medicine, Radiation Biology Department, Cologne, Germany, co-authored by Petra Rettberg, Joerg Stuelke, Delma Childers, Charles Cockell, Kai Finster, Ruth Hemmersbach and Ralf Moeller
“Slime but fine” -- New insights about Bacillus subtilis biofilm formation and robustness under simulated space conditions
Simone Martini, University of Florence, Italy / Univerily of Leiden, Leiden Observatory, the Netherlands, co-authored by E.P.Monaghan and P.Ehrenfreund
Biology of Mars Soil Analogues, Biomolecules preservation and their relationship with life
Lena Noack, Department of Reference Systems and Planetology, Royal Observatory of Belgium, Belgium, co-authored by Dennis Höning, Attilio Rivoldini, Clemens Heistracher, Nastasia Zimov, H. Lammer, Tim Van Hoolst and Jan Hendrik Bredehöft
Water-rich planets: How habitable is a water layer deeper than on Earth?
Marina Raguse, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Aerospace Medicine, Radiation Biology Department, Cologne, Germany, co-authored by M. Fiebrandt, K. Stapelmann, P. Eaton, F. Narberhaus, P. Awakowiczand R. Moeller
Plasma sterilization as an innovative tool for the next generation of planetary protection
Krzysztof Rychert, Department of Ecology, Pomeranian University in Słupsk, Poland, co-authored by Beata Mendrzejewska and Anna Kiestrzyń
Dynamics of oxygen consumption during formation of the anoxic zone

All participants and judges of the 2014 Students Contest
From left to rigth: Daniela Billi, Giuseppe Gallo, Kirsi Lehto, Claudia Hahn, Rocco L. Mancinelli, Frances Westall, Bo Byloos, Katja Nagler (2nd prize), Sherry L. Cady, Alexandra Perras (1st prize), Charles S. Cockell, Corinna Panitz, Dagmar Koschnitzki (3rd prize), Ralf Moeller, Michaela Musilova, Claudia Pacelli (Image by Natasha Nicholson).

1st prize
Alexandra Perras, Department of Internal Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Austria
Grappling hooks: The life style and ultrastructure of the SM1 Euryarchaeon which thrives in a Mars analogue site

2nd prize
Katja Nagler, Institute of Aerospace Medicine, German Aerospace Center, Germany
Analysis of Bacillus subtilis spore germination in high-salinity environments

3rd prize
Dagmar Koschnitzki, Institute of Aerospace Medicine, German Aerospace Center, Germany
Ignicoccus hospitalis shows high radiation tolerance although never exposed to it in its natural habitat

Find more information on http://www.dlr.de/me/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-1752/2384_read-41310.

During EANA 14, the 64 posters were evaluated by a distinguished team of astrobiologists consisting of Lewis Dartnell (UK), Kai Finster (Denmark), Kensei Kobayashi (Japan), Kirsi Lehto (Finland), Manesh Patel (UK) and Henry Strasdeit (Germany).
Thanks to the generosity of the publishers Springer and Cambridge University Press, each awardee received a recent book topical to astrobiology in addition to the poster prize document. The winners were awarded by EANA`s President Frances Westall and Honorary President Gerda Horneck during the closing session of EANA 14.

Picture of the winners of the poster award¹, subsidiary colleagues² and organizers³ of the 2014 EANA poster awards.

From left to right:

Jean-Pierre de Vera² (for awardee Dennis Höning¹), Gerda Horneck³, Frances Westall³, Casey Bryce¹, Maximilian Mora¹, Tetyana Milojevic¹, Bo Byloos¹and Dominic Papineau² (for awardee Matthew S. Dodd¹).

Image courtesy of Natasha Nicholson.

List of awarded posters in alphabetical order:

Casey Bryce, UK Centre for Astrobiology, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK, co-authored by Sarah Martin, Thierry Le Bihan, Timothy Bush, Bryan Spears, Alanna Moore, Jesse Harrison, Natalie Leys, Bo Byloos and Charles Cockell
Rock geochemistry drives stress and starvation responses in the bacterial proteome
Bo Byloos, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Belgian Nuclear Research Center SCK-CEN, Mol, Belgium, co-authored by Rob Van Houdt, Nico Boon and Natalie Leys
Potential of Cupriavidus metallidurans CH34 for biomining from lunar-like basalt by determining the molecular mechanisms behind microbe-mineral interactions
Matthew S. Dodd, London Centre for Nanotechnology and Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, UK, co-authored by Dominic Papineau
Biosignatures of early life in >3.8Ga Banded Iron Formations?
Dennis Höning, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Planetary Research, Berlin, Germany, co-authored by T. Spohn
A Thermal Evolution Model of the Earth Including the Biosphere, Continental Growth and Mantle Hydration
Maximilian Mora, University of Graz, Austria, co-authored by Daniel Eckl, Michael Mauermeier and Christine Moissl-Eichinger
ARBEX - Archaeal and bacterial extremophiles onboard the International Space Station ISS
Tetyana Milojevic, Archaea Biology and Ecogenomics Division, and Department of Biophysical Chemistry, University of Vienna, Austria, co-authored by Ziga Zebec, Simon Rittmann, Melina Kerou and Christa Schleper
Iron-oxidising thermoacidophilic archaeon Metallosphaera sedula: insights into astrobiological application

All participants and judges of the 2013 Students Contest

1st prize
Jan Frösler
The influence of extracellular polymeric substances on the tolerance of Deinococcus geothermalis to the environmental conditions of space and Mars

2nd prize
Paloma Serrano
Methanogenic archaea from Siberian permafrost: response to simulated Martian conditions and biosignature description

3rd prize
Yuko Kawaguchi
Microbes in clay micro-particles collided with ultralow density silica aerogel at 4km/s can be detected by fluorescence imaging

In a half-day session on October 16th, 2012 the student contest “The Space Factor" was held for the second time, organized and chaired by Ralf Moeller (German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR), Cologne, Germany)) and co-chaired by Oleg Gusev (National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Tsukuba, Japan). In the student contest, 10 young scientists, PhD students from different research fields covering chemistry, cosmology, mineralogy, microbiology and planetology, introduced themselves and their research with oral talk and a poster presentation to all conference participants. An interdisciplinary committee board (Kai Finster (Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark), Nils G. Holm (Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden), Helmut Lammer (Space Research Institute, Graz, Austria), and Natalia B. Gontareva (Institute of Cytology, St. Petersburg, Russia) judged the contributions of all participating PhD students.
The EANA 2012 student contest was generously supported with several prizes (e.g. online journal subscription, Svante Arrhenius Astrobiology Award and prize money) by the Astrobiology Journal (Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.), DLR’s Radiation Biology Department and the Helmholtz Space Life Sciences Research School (SpaceLife), which is gratefully acknowledged here.

Picture of the participants¹, reviewers² and organizer³ of the 2012 EANA students contest "The Space Factor".

From left to right:
Ralf Möller³, Nils G. Holm², Alfonso Delgado Bonal¹, Kai Finster², Ebbe Norskov Bak¹, Siddharth Hegde¹, Stefanie Lutz¹, Mickael Baqué¹, Petra Schwendner¹, Natalia B. Gontareva²

Missing on the picture are:
Oleg Gusev³, Helmut Lammer², Jan Marie Andersen¹, Aristodimos Vasileiadis¹, Arkadii V. Tarasevych¹, Gayathri Murukesan¹). Image courtesy of Marko Wassmann.

1st prize Jan Marie Andersen (Københavns Universitet, Niels Bohr Institute, Centre for Star and Planet Formation, Copenhagen, Denmark / NSF Graduate Research Fellow at Boston University Astronomy Department, Boston, USA) Talk and poster: M dwarfs as planet hosts: consequences of stellar activity on exoplanet detection
2nd prize Petra Schwendner (Universität Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany / DLR Cologne, Germany) Talk and poster: Monitoring of the microbial community during simulated flight to Mars
3rd prize Mickael Baqué (University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy) Talk and poster: BIOMEX-Desert Cyanobacteria: ground simulations of the EXPOSE-R2 mission

The posters presented at EANA12 were evaluated by co-chairs according to the scientific and presentation quality. Eight poster book awards were granted to the following recipients:

Siddharth Hegde for his poster "Colors of extreme exo-Earths environments"
Samuel Regandell for "Spectral synthesis for protoplanetary disk models"
Franz Leißing for "The thermal stability of tetrapyrrols: exploring the limits"
Veronika Grosz for "Continuous, in situ measurement of the altitude-dependent change of UV radiation and its effects on biological systems"
Lauri Nikkanen for "Origin of cellular life: The earliest genome was of eukaryotic type?"
Jun Kawai for "Self-assembly of Titan tholins in environments simulating Titan liquidospheres andits implication to formation of primitive membrane in Titan"
Engy Ahmed for "Soil Microorganisms and Mineral Weathering: Mechanics of Biotite Dissolution"
Joachim Meeßen for "Comparative studies on the morphological-anatomical, chemical, and physiological properties of four space-relevant lichen species to assess their high potential in resisting extreme environmental conditions"

The book awards were kindly donated by the publishers Springer and Cambridge University Press.

Award ceremony 2011

All participants 2011

1st prize Anja Bauermeister (a PhD student from the University of Duisburg/Essen, Biofilm Centre, Essen, Germany and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Insititue of Aerospace Medicine, Radiation Biology, Cologne, Germany) gave the Best Young Researcher presentation, entitled Could acidophilic iron-sulfur bacteria be suitable model organisms for Mars?
2nd prize Francisco Javier Sánchez Iñigo, PhD student (from Earth Observation Department, INTA. Ctra. de Ajalvir, Km. 4, Torrejón de Ardoz, 28850 Madrid, Spain) Presentation title: Resistance of Rhizocarpon geographicum to UV-B and UV-C radiation in a hydrated- and desiccated state
3rd prize Aditya Chopra, PhD student (from The Australian National University, Planetary Science Institute, Canberra, Australia) Presentation title: What do the elemental abundances tell us about the universality of life?

The posters presented at EANA11 were evaluated by co-chairs according to the scientific and presentation quality. Five poster book awards were granted to the following recipients:

Ana-Catalina Plesa for her poster "Thermo-chemical evolution and the atmospheric evolution of terrestrial planets"
Aditya Chopra for his posters "What do the elemental abundances tell us about universality of life?" and "Elemental insights into the site of the origin and early evolution of life on Earth"
Lena Noack for her poster "Plate tectonics on Earth-like planets: Implications for habitability"
Shin-ichi Yokobori for his poster "Capture and space exposure experiments of microorganisms on the ISS orbit proposed in "TANPOPO" mission"
Gopal Pathak for his poster "A novel DNA repair enzyme from Acinetobacter sp. Ver3 isolated from an extreme environment"

The book awards were donated by the publishers Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Springer, and Wiley VCH, which is highly appreciated.