Anastasia Y
- Research Program Mentor

PhD at Columbia University

Expertise

Earth sciences, planetary sciences, physics, mathematics, chemistry, spectroscopy

Bio

Hi everyone! My name is Anastasia and I am currently a postdoctoral scientist at Cal Tech where I am studying phase transitions of organic gases relevant to Titan in prep for the Dragonfly Mission. Prior to this I was working with the SHERLOC team with Perseverance Rover on Mars analyzing minerals and organics within them with Raman spectroscopy. My general background is in isotope geochemistry, paleoceanography, planetary sciences, spectroscopy, and studying origins of life on Earth. Outside of work I am an active athlete and race road, gravel, and track bikes, dive, climb, and enjoy some sports less seriously (kitesurfing and windsurfing, as an example).

Project ideas

Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.

Chemical Gardens and search for potential biosignatures in our solar system

Research paper idea 1. The student will learn how to read, process, and summarize research papers relevant to chemical garden structures. The student is asked to read academic literature and make a list of five different chemical garden structures relevant to planetary bodies within our solar system that have a liquid ocean (for example, Titan, Enceladus, Europa).

Titan and tholins

Research paper idea 2. The student will learn how to read, process, and summarize research papers relevant to formation of tholins on Titan. The student will be asked to read academic literature on tholin formation and summarize 3-5 hypothesis on their formation on Titan.

Silicates on Mars

Research paper idea 3. The student will learn how to read, process, and summarize research papers relevant to observations of silica rich rocks on Mars. The deliverable will be a summary of different types of silica formations, and the formation mechanisms.

Coding skills

Python, Java, C++, Matlab, IDL, FORTRAN 90.

Languages I know

Russian (first and native language), French (good proficiency), Hebrew (introductory proficiency)

Teaching experience

I TA'd a few courses during my Ph.D. at Columbia University: Weapons of Mass Destruction, Quantitative Methods of Data Analysis, Chemical Oceanography, and a few others. I very much enjoyed working with students and did a great job! There was once when I was asked to sub for a course and give a lecture, I happily accepted and recall the microphone wasnt working (the lecture hall had about 50 students) and I had to improvise. I luckily have a loud voice and gave an amazing lecture. More recently, I was working at a startup, Impossible Sensing, LLC., in St. Louis Missouri and I there mentored two students (from Washington University). The first project was analyzing synthetic mineral structures with Raman and the second was pairing doing measurements on marine minerals with laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) to match the intensity of the lines associated with any particular element to the mineral composition. Both students are now in successful graduate Ph.D. programs.

Credentials

Work experience

Impossible Sensing, LLC. (2020 - 2023)

Research Scientist

California Institute of Technology (2024 - Current)

Postdoctoral Scholar Research Associate in Geochemistry

Education

Creighton University

BS Bachelor of Science (2009)

Atmospheric Science

Columbia University

MS Master of Science (2011)

Isotope geochemistry and paleoceanography