Habitability and life on Exoplanets

Lucyna will talk and discuss the conditions for habitability and the basic requirements for life as we know it. She will also talk about the potentially habitable places in our Solar system and describe the methods that can be used to detect life on extrasolar planets.

Dr Lucyna Kedziora-Chudczer

Lucyna Kedziora-Chudczer was born in Poland, where she studied astronomy at the Jagellonian University in Krakow. After she received her Master Degree, she moved to Australia and completed her PhD on the radio variability of Active Galactic Nuclei at the University of Sydney in 1999. At the same year she became the AAO/ATNF Research Fellow at the Anglo Australian Observatory studying polarization properties and monitoring the intraday variable quasars. In 2003 she moved to the University of Sydney, where she was offered a position of the Harry Messel Research Fellow, and continued her work on both the polarization of compact radio sources and properties of our local Galactic Interstellar Medium. During this time, she also taught undergraduate courses and mentored the PhD students.

In 2009 she accepted a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the UNSW in the area of planetary and exo-planetary science. She is a member of the Australian Centre for Astrobiology. Her interests include the spectroscopy and polarimetry observations of exoplanets, as well as the modelling of planetary atmospheres. During her research at the UNSW she was involved in the design and construction of the High Precision Polarimetric Instrument (HIPPI) used at the Anglo Australian Telescope for observations of exoplanets and bright stars. In 2019 she accepted position of the Program Manager at Astronomy Australia Limited. She continues her research in planetary astronomy as an Adjunct Research Fellow at the University of Southern Queensland.