Big Congratulations to our hardworking Bachelor Students, Amanda and Juliette!
From Moon to Mars. We are searching for the water aqueous history and potential water resources for future human missions using vibrational spectroscopy in the Yesilbas Lab.
Big Congratulations to Amanda and Juliette for their fantastic works on Mars and Moon!
Houston, we have exciting news about Moon and Mars!!!
Our fantastic Bachelors, Amanda and Juliette successfully completed their Bachelor projects and made us very proud!!!
Amanda’s Bachelor project focused on the ion-exchange reactions that could take place in near surface environments of Mars today. Amanda worked with the Fe-rich layered nontronite clay mineral and hygroscopic Cl-salt mixtures that has been detected on Mars by previous space missions using the Raman spectroscopy. Amanda found out the hygroscopic nature of salts could be driven factor for water retention and ion-exchange reactions taking place in the near surfaces of Mars today. Does Mars has active chemistry today? We are one step closer to confirm this!!
During her Bachelor studies, Juliette revealed the temperature effect on the deformation of O-/OH-bearing plagioclase and pyroxene minerals and lunar Highland and Mare Dust analogues using low-temperature Raman spectroscopy. Juliette found out that plagioclase mixtures exhibited stronger crystal structure than pyroxenes during Moon-like temperature variations. Which do rocks serve best as a water resource for future human missions on Moon? Juliette confirmed the best rocks as a water resource for the astronauts on Artemis mission.
After completion of their Bachelor theses, Amanda and Juliette are paving way for their academic careers. Amanda is starting to the “Sustainable Chemistry” Master Programme in the Stockholm University in Autumn 2024. Juliette will continue her space explorations during the summer. She was accepted into the “Junior Space Academy” program for early career researchers, which will be held on Paris from June 17 to June 21. Then, she will start her Master studies in Organic Chemistry at University of Bordeaux in Autumn 2024.
Amanda and Juliette’s cool explorations will be added into the our manuscripts. We are looking forward to share our results with all science community!
From the depth of my heart, congratulations Amanda and Juliette!!! The future is so bright!!
/Merve