Undergraduates and OoLEN

If you are an undergraduate student not active on research on the origin of life, you cannot join OoLEN yet, but if you like to do so in the future, this is the page for you!

Below you will find resources and a few tips on how to get started on your journey in OoL research. When you become active in research, please do join us.

Tips

1. Read papers on the origin of life, there is a weekly digest of the newest OoL papers that you can sign up for, here.

2. If you do not know where to start your reading journey, you could check out one of OoLEN’s own publications, written by early-career researchers only. One review gives a perspective of the current state of the art in the field while the other gives an overview of techniques used to study OoL. It can also can be useful to check out the references of papers that you are already interested in.

3. If you’re looking to do a BSc or MSc dissertation, check if there is a scientist/professor in your university that you can work with on a topic on the origin of life. They may not have had a project in OoL before, but can be working currently on biophysics, geochemistry, astronomy, chemistry, molecular biology, computational sciences, philosophy, etc. and be interested in having an eager student like you to do your thesis with them! The origin of life is an interdisciplinary field and sometimes all it takes is a couple of curious, bright minds to come up with a brand new project that could advance the field.

Resources and Workshops

• Free online course on the basic principles of origin of life research or Link to YouTube playlist

• AbGradE

• Blue Marble Space Institute of Science - The Young Scientist Program (YSP)

• EAI Academy (Recordings from past seminars can be found on the CAB Youtube Channel )

• NASA Astrobiology Event List

• NoRCEL

• RED Astrobiology School (annual)

• Santa Fe institute

• SETI - Research Experience for Undergraduates

Conferences

Since conference website links change from year to year, we only list the names here. A simple internet search using the name and adding "conference" to the search prompt should be sufficient to find the current installment of the respective event. Please note that this list is not exhaustive. We do not explicitly endorse any of the conferences listed. This list is intended only as a guide. We encourage you to judge for yourself whether each event matches your personal interests and values, and whether it is worth paying any registration fees that may apply.

• AbGradCon

• AbSciCon

• aLife

• BEACON

• EANA

• GRC

• GRS

• Life and Space Poland

• Molecular Origins of Life

• NoRCEL

• International Congress on Extremophiles

• IOoL

• ISSOL