Workshop 2026 and Member's Meeting

Dear Colleagues,

Thank you very much for the numerous registrations for the workshop as part of the 10th anniversary of the DAbG. We are pleased to announce that all submitted abstracts have been accepted for presentation as talks (12 minutes + 3 minutes for questions). For a preliminary program (subject to changes), including abstracts, see link below. Please note: For the 10th anniversary, we are planning a larger program including an ice-breaker on Sunday evening, awarding of the Ralf Möller Memorial Prize, conference dinner, as well as city and Telegraphenberg tours. As a result, this year also features a full-day scientific program extending into the evening on Tuesday (October 13th), and we kindly ask everyone to plan their schedules accordingly.

Further Information:

1. An approximate contribution of €6–9 per person will be required for the planned City Center Tour (depending on number of participants and tour duration). Registration is requested via informal email to dabg_at_astrobiologie.de.
2. The conference dinner is currently still in the planning phase. Further information will follow shortly.
3. Participation registration without an abstract remains possible until August 31st.
4. We kindly ask everyone (except invited speakers) who has not yet paid the participation fee (€75) to make the transfer by August 31st to the DAbG account: IBAN: DE22 1007 0024 0632 7480 00; Deutsche Bank; BIC/SWIFT Code: DEUTDEDBBER. Thank you very much!

For any questions, please feel free to reply to this email.
Looking forward to see you all in Potsdam.

Best regards,

Jacob Heinz
(on behalf of the DAbG Board)

Research Associate for the Project “Relevance of biocrusts for carbon pools and dynamics in dryland soils in Southern Africa”

see Research Associate for the Project “Relevance of biocrusts for carbon pools and dynamics in dryland soils in Southern Africa” CLICCS II # M3 § 28 Subsection 3 HmbHG : Ausschreibung : Stellenangebote : Universität Hamburg

The Cluster of Excellence “Climate, Climatic Change, and Society” (CLICCS) investigates climate dynamics and climate-related social dynamics, as well as the interactions between the two. To this end, we are looking for colleagues from a wide range of disciplines, including the natural sciences as well as the social sciences. We are proud to work together in a truly integrating manner. Our partners, e.g. the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Helmholtz Centre Hereon or the German Climate Computing Centre are also hiring. All jobs: www.cliccs.uni-hamburg.de/jobs

Michel Mayor Fellowship

The Life in the Universe Center (Centre pour la Vie dans l'Univers) at the University of Geneva is pleased to announce the opening of the 2026 Michel Mayor Fellowship call. The Michel Mayor Fellowships support outstanding early-career researchers wishing to pursue innovative, interdisciplinary research on the origins, evolution, and detection of life in the Universe. Fellows develop an independent research project co-supervised by mentors from two different disciplines, with access to Geneva's interdisciplinary research environment. Key information: Duration: up to 3 years Eligibility: PhD obtained within approximately the last 2 years Research area: interdisciplinary projects related to Life in the Universe Application deadline: 30 October 2026, 17:00 (Swiss time) Start date: no later than July 2027 More information, eligibility criteria, available host laboratories, and application instructions can be found here:  Michel Mayor Fellowships - Centre pour la Vie dans l'Univers - UNIGE ! For any questions, please contact: cvu_admin_at_unige.ch.

Workshop "Introduction to Planetary Protection"

ESA, October 06.-08. 2026. For details see Introduction to Planetary Protection - Fraunhofer IPA

Workshop 2026 and Member's Meeting

Dear DAbG members,

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the founding of our society. For this reason, our workshop combined with the members' meeting this year is also intended to be a special event with numerous activities, including an icebreaker on Sunday.
We plan to hold our meeting on the days from
October 11 to 13, 2026
at the Telegrafenberg in Potsdam at the GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences.
In order for us to properly estimate the number of participants for further planning, we would be grateful for a prompt short response indicating your interest. The number of participants is limited this time, so early pre-registration is important. Please use the link to the Nuudle survey (GDPR-compliant, without insight into the voting results of other participants) to indicate your interest:

https://nuudel.digitalcourage.de/nRH5ublIs8SfMhAo

Further information such as deadlines, links, and registration formalities will be provided in due course.

As usual, a limited number of travel grants can be awarded to students and early-career researchers for participation in the workshop: https://www.astrobiologie.de/aktivitaeten/reisekostenzuschuesse/

Please send your application to our treasurer Dirk Wagner (dirk.wagner_at_gfz.de). We would be pleased to welcome you to the workshop and the general meeting! 

With best regards

Christian Mayer
(on behalf of the board)

Planetary Protection for Sustainable Space Exploration

Royal Society Publishing has recently published an OPEN ACCESS theme issue of
Philosophical Transactions A: Planetary Protection for sustainable space exploration
compiled and edited by Karen Olsson-Francis, Athena Coustenis, Peter Doran,
Petra Rettberg, Niklas Hedman and Jean-Claude Worms and the articles are FREE to access at www.bit.ly/TransA2314

COSPAR 2026

COSPAR 2026 will bring together approximately 3000 scientists and engineers from the all over the world to present the latest results in symposia covering all areas of space science from space life sciences to space exploration and offering also interesting opportunities for students and young scientists to get a general overview about space research and to start networking.

Abstract deadline:  13 February 2026

Early registration deadline:  17 May 2026

For details, see https://cospar2026.org/

Possible Protocell-formation

on Saturn's moon Titan

Based on the present knowledge of the atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan, Christian Mayer (DAbG) and Conor Nixon (NASA) propose a mechanism for the formation of cell-like vesicles. Similar to biological cells, these vesicles exhibit a double-layer membrane and are capable of undergoing a Darwinian evolution process. Appropriate detection methods are planned for future research missions to Titan.       

The mechanism has been visualized by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center   

(Video: vesicle formation on Titan)

Original Paper:  Mayer/Nixon: International Journal of Astrobiology

Professur

im Fachbereich Chemie und Biochemie

mit Schwerpunkt auf Präbiotischer Chemie

im

Life in the Universe Center 

der Universität Genf

Die Deadline für eine Bewerbung ist der 15. März 2026, voraussichtliches Antrittsdatum der Stelle ist im September 2026.

Mehr Informationen unter https://www.unige.ch/sciences/cvu/

DAbG is now represented on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/astrobiologie/

We may be looking for Martian life in the wrong place

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-024-02381-x

https://bigthink.com/hard-science/follow-the-salt-a-new-strategy-for-finding-life-on-mars

Payload Proposals for SpinSat Platform

Dear colleagues of Commission F,

I am part of a NASA Ames-led team that is developing the SpinSat platform, a multi-payload spinning satellite that will provide centrifugal gravity in beyond-LEO radiation environments. 

We recently released a request for information (RFI) via SAM.gov, aimed to solicit interest and responses from those who might propose science payloads for this platform, as well as those who could develop payload hardware to enable such experiments to fly on SpinSat.

Please see the SpinSat RFI for descriptive details and to be added to the e-mailing list for updates, and please contact julie.k.fletcher_at_nasa.gov (or me) if you have questions. We would welcome a response from you to this RFI!

Sincerely,

Dr. Petra Rettberg

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