Klaus Paschek

Klaus Paschek

Ph.D. candidate - Astrophysics

Max Planck Institute for Astronomy

Hey!

I am an astrophysics Ph.D. candidate at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany. My main research interest is in the fields of astrobiology and the origins of life.

My research experience ranges from planetary habitability due to tidal heating to the synthesis of prebiotic molecules in the parent body planetesimals of carbonaceous chondrites. Further, I plan to model autocatalytic reaction networks in an effort to better understand how non-living matter became life.

I am an Executive Board member of the Origin of Life Early-career Network and I enjoy climbing on via ferratas, weight lifting, scuba diving, and Geocaching during my free time.

In the picture you can see me pointing on the deposit (black layer) of the dinosaur killer, impacting the Earth around 66 million years ago. As a member of the class of carbonaceous chondrites , this meteorite belonged to the same family of impactors that might have seeded the building blocks of life on our planet in the first place. Therefore, both life and death might arise from meteorites.

News & Upcoming

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New preprint on arXiv

What it takes to solve the Origin(s) of Life: An integrated review of techniques

Contributed talk at BEACON 2023
Contributed talk at BEACON 2023

Meteorites and the RNA World: Synthesis of Nucleobases and Ribose in Carbonaceous Planetesimals and the Role of Initial Volatile Content

Contributed talk at AbGradEPEC 2023
Contributed talk at AbGradEPEC 2023

Tidal Accelerations, (Cryo-)Volcanism, and Habitability in the Solar System and Extrasolar Planetary Systems

What it takes to solve the Origin(s) of Life: An integrated review of techniques
Understanding the origin(s) of life (OoL) is a fundamental challenge for science in the 21st century. Research on OoL spans many …

Curriculum Vitae

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Contact

  • paschek@mpia.de
  • +49 6221 528-335
  • Königstuhl 17
    D-69117 Heidelberg
    Germany
  • Enter the main building, take the stairs up one floor, turn right, bear left to the elevator, and follow the hallway to the end to Office 224
  • DM Me