Havishk Tripathi has recently joined our team as a doctoral student! He has focused his undergraduate studies in Chemical Engineering and Geology, at Rutgers University in the USA. Havishk's prior research, focused on astrobiology and exo-geoscience, was at the NASA Astrobiology Institute Enigma Team , and at the Earth-Life Science Institute, with the Tokyo Institute of Technology. He has also won an award from NASA, the Early Career Collaborator Award, which funded his time at ELSI.

During his doctoral period, Havishk is interested in investigating the four geosphere relations for a rocky planet and aims to develop fundamental exo-geoscience by reframing the characterization of biosignatures. In order to do this, he will go to hot-springs that have unique, complex chemistry and identify catalytic minerals sites that could indicate signs of life. He will then use and develop analytical methods like FTIR, SERS, or DESI to demonstrate practicality for larger-scale missions.