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Kenneth Marshall Seaton

Photo of Kenneth Seaton

Address:

4800 Oak Grove Drive

Pasadena, CA 91109

Curriculum Vitae:

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Member of:

Laboratory Studies

Biography

Working under NPP advisors Bryana Henderson and Morgan Cable, Marshall is interested in how hypervelocity impacts affect molecular fragmentation and the appearance of these fragments in impact ionization mass spectra. He is currently utilizing the JPL Hypervelocity Ice Grain System (HIGS) to simulate the hypervelocity impacts of ice grains during planetary flybys, which will inform future hypervelocity sampling efforts at Europa, Enceladus, and other icy worlds. In his free time, he enjoys kayaking, hiking, running, fishing, weightlifting, playing the guitar, and playing videogames.

Education

  • Ph.D., Analytical Chemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology (2022)
  • M.S., Chemistry, East Tennessee State University (2017)
  • B.S., Chemistry, East Tennessee State University (2014)

Professional Experience

  • NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) Fellow (2023-present)
  • Science Lead, NASA Planetary Science Summer School Program (2021)
  • Future Investigator in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) (2019-2022)
  • Jet Propulsion Laboratory Summer Internship (2018)

Research Interests

  • Planetary science
  • Mass spectrometry
  • Hypervelocity sampling strategies
  • Biomarker detection strategies

Selected Awards

  • NASA Astrobiology Early Career Collaboration Award, for work developing hypervelocity sampling strategies (2018)
  • ETSU Distinguished Graduate Student Award, for excellence in teaching (2016)

Selected Publications

  1. Pozarycki, C., Seaton, K. M., Nuñez, N., Crawford, E., Stockton, A. (2023). “Follow the salt”: Patterns of biosignature preservation and evapoconcentration in hypersaline magnesium brines. (in preparation)
  2. Seaton, K. M., Pozarycki, C., Nuñez, N., Stockton, A. (2022). Quantitative compositional analysis of amino acids in extraterrestrial brine analogues using capillary electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence. (submitted)
  3. Seaton, K. M., Gyalay, S., Stucky de Quay, G., Burnett, E., Denton, C., Doerr, B., Ebadi, K., Eckert, S., Flynn, I., Honniball, C., Hume, S., Kling, C., Marohnic, J., Milton, J., Mondro, C., Nuno, R., Rooney, C., Strauss, B., Nash, A., Scully, J. (2023). Astrobiology eXploration at Enceladus (AXE): A New Frontiers mission concept study. (in revision)
  4. Seaton, K. M., Cable, M., Stockton, A. (2022). Analytical chemistry throughout this solar system. Annu. Rev. Anal. Chem., 15, 197-219.
  5. Seaton, K. M., Cable, M., Stockton, A. (2021) Analytical chemistry in astrobiology. Anal. Chem., 93(15), 5981-5997. (invited feature)

Projects

Europa Clipper