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Jessica Weber

Photo of Jessica Weber

Address:

4800 Oak Grove Drive
M/S 183-301

Pasadena, CA 91109

Phone:

818-928-9412

Member of:

Laboratory Studies

Education

  • MIT PhD, 2019 (Chemistry)
  • University of Chicago B.S. 2014 (Chemistry)

Professional Experience

  • Jet Propulsion Laboratory (2019 – present)
    • JPL Postdoctoral Researcher with Dr. Laurie Barge
    • Member of 2020 Planetary Science Summer School
    • Mentor of JPL interns (January 2020 – present) in MSP and JVSRP programs
    • Organization Co-lead of Caltech-JPL Venus Seminar Series (Fall 2019)
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2014 - 2019)
    • Research assistant, department of chemistry
    • Organic Chemistry Teaching Assistant (Fall 2014, Spring 2015)
  • University of Chicago (2010 - 2014)
    • Research technician, department of chemistry

Community Service

  • Reviewer for journals including: CrystEngComm, ACS Earth and Space Chemistry, Langmuir, Nature Chemistry Communications
  • 2021 Dwornik Award Judge at LPSC
  • Session convener at 2020 AGU, 2021 LPSC
  • Volunteer at EXP Women in STEM Career Day (February 2020)

Research Interests

Prebiotic chemistry, origin of life, organic chemistry, astrobiology

Selected Awards

  • Co-I, JPL Spontaneous R&TD: "A New Magnetic Electron Detection Technique for Astrobiology" (2020)
  • MIT Graduate Women of Excellence (2017)

Selected Publications

  1. Weber, J. M., Henderson, B. L.; LaRowe, D. E., Goldman, A. G., Perl, S. M., Billings, K., Barge, L. M.* "Iron-sulfur minerals drive NAD+ reduction under prebiotic Earth conditions.” Astrobiology 2021, in review.
  2. Spiers, E. M.*; Weber, J. M.; Venigalla, C.; Annex, A. M.; Chen, C. P.; Gray, P. C.; Lee, C. I. McInyre, K. J.; Berdis, J. R.; Carberry Mogan, S. R.; do Vale Periera, P.; Kumar, S.; O’Neill, W.; Czajk, E. A.; Johnson, P. E.; Pascuzzo, A.; Tallapragada, S.; Phillips, D.; Mitchell, K.; Nash, A.; Scully, J.; Lowes, L. “Tiger: Concept Study for a New Frontiers Enceladus Habitability Mission.” Planetary Science Journal 2021, accepted
  3. Perl S. M.; Celestian, A. J.; Cockell, C. S.; Corsetti, F. A.; Barge, L. M.; Bottjer, D.; Filiberto, J.; Berelson, W. M.; Sessions, A. L.; Bacter, B. K. Kanik, I.; Potter-McIntyre, S.; Kataria, T.; Chen, P.; Weber, J. M.; Rodriguez, L. E.; Melwani-Daswani, M. “A Proposed Geobiology-Driven Nomenclature for Astrobiological in situ Observations and Sample Analysis.” Astrobiology 2021, 21, DOI: 10.1089/ast.2020.2318
  4. Flores, E.* Martinez, E., Rodriguez, L. E., Weber, J. M., Khodayari, A., Barge, L. M.* "Effects of Amino Acids on Phosphate Adsorption onto Iron (Oxy)hydroxide Minerals under Early Earth Conditions." ACS Earth and Space Chem, 2021, 5, 1048-1057.
  5. Weber, J. M.*; Barge, L. M. "Iron-Silicate Chemical Garden Morphology and Reactivity with Alpha-Keto Acids." ChemSystemsChem 2021, 3, e2000058.
  6. Barge, L. M.*; Flores, E.; VanderVelde, D.; Weber, J. M.; Baum, M. M.; Castonguay, A. "Geochemical gradients determine organic distributions in prebiotic reaction networks." JGR Planets 2020, 125, e2020JE006423.
  7. Hooks, M. R.; Webster, P.; Weber, J. M.*; Perl, S. Barge, L. M.; “Effects of Amino Acids on Iron-Silicate Chemical Garden Precipitates.” Langmuir 2020, 36, 5793-5801.
  8. Weber, J. M.; Longstreet, A. R.; Jamison, T. F.* “Bench-Stable Nickel Precatalysts with Heck-type Activation.” Organometallics 2018, 37, 2716–2722.
  9. Strieth-Kalthoff, F.; Longstreet, A. R.; Weber, J. M.; Jamison, T. F.* “Bench-Stable N-Heterocyclic Carbene Nickel Precatalysts for C–C and C–N Bond-Forming Reactions.” ChemCatChem 2018, 10, 2873–2877.
  10. Gates, Z. G.*; Vinogradov, A. A.; Quartararo, A. J.; Bandyopadhyay, A.; Choo, Z.-N.; Evans, E. D.; Halloran, K. H.; Mijalis, A. J.; Mong, S. K.; Simon, M. D.; Standley, E. A.; Styduhar, E. D.; Tasker, S. Z.; Touti, F.; Weber, J. M.; Wilson, J. L.; Jamison, T. F.; Pentelute, B. L.* “Xenoprotein Engineering via Synthetic Libraries.” PNAS. 2018, 115, E5298–E5306.