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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

Scientist

Biography

Dr. Jessica Weber is a Research Scientist working at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She is a chemist and astrobiologist working to understand the limits of organic chemistry on planetary bodies, including Mars, Ceres, Venus, and ocean worlds. Jessica is the Co-PI of the Origins and Habitability Lab (OHL). Jessica received her B.S. in Chemistry from UChicago and her Ph.D. in Chemistry from MIT. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, reading, and scuba diving.

Education

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

Professional Experience

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (2019 – present)

  • Research Scientist, Laboratory Studies (2022 - present)
  • Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) Payload Support (2025 – present)
  • Associate Program Area Scientist for Ocean Worlds Science (2022 – present)
  • Science Team Member of EELS Path to Flight Working Group ( 2022 – 2024)
  • Enceladus Vent Explorer (EVE) Science Team Member (2021 - 2022); Science Co-Lead (2022 – 2023)
  • JPL Postdoctoral Researcher with Dr. Laurie Barge (2019-2022)
  • Member of 2020 Planetary Science Summer School
  • Mentor of JPL interns (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 (2015 – 2019)
  • Teaching assistant (2014 – 2015)

Community Service

  • Member of PCE3 Steering Committee (2025 – present)
  • Reviewer for journals including: CrystEngComm, ACS Earth and Space Chemistry, Langmuir, Nature Chemistry Communications, Nature Communications, Astrobiology, PNAS, Science
  • Member of the Search for Life Science Analysis Group (SFL-SAG) (2024 – present)
  • Panelist for Planetary Science Panel at JPL Blue Sky 20 Years Ahead Panel (Sept 2023)
  • Committee Member of Venus Early Career Group (VEXAG SAW 13) (2022 – present)
  • Member of NASA Standards of Evidence in Life Detection workshop (July 2021)
  • Organizer of JPL Astrobiology Journal Club (2020 – 2022)
  • 2021 Dwornik Award Judge at LPSC
  • Panelist and Moderator on “Women in Chemistry and STEM Career” panel for the Southern California ACS National Chemistry Week. (October 2020)
  • Volunteer at EXP Women in STEM Career Day (February 2020)

Research Interests

Prebiotic chemistry, origin of life, organic chemistry, astrobiology

Selected Awards

  • PI. NASA ROSES Exobiology. Organic Preservation and Reaction on Ceres. 2025-2028.
  • 2025 Keck Institute for Space Science (KISS) Study Lead “Next Frontiers in the Investigation of Extraterrestrial Organics” (Co-Leads: Bose, M.; Tejada, J.)
  • 2022 NASA Astrobiology Early Career Collaboration Award. (2022 with Goddard Flight Research Center
  • Co-I, JPL Spontaneous R&TD: "Development Task. Novel Continuous Flow Reaction Design to Test Martian Weathering." (2022)
  • Co-I, JPL Spontaneous R&TD: "A New Magnetic Electron Detection Technique for Astrobiology" (2020)
  • MIT Graduate Women of Excellence (2017)

Selected Publications

  1. Martinez, E.; Flores, E. Valadez, D.; Weber, J. M.*; VanderVelde, D.; Sheppard, R. Y.; Hodyss, R.; Castillo-Rogez, J. C.; Melwani Daswani, M.; Henderson, B. L.; Barge, L. M. “Organic Adsorption onto Iron Hydroxide and Sulfide Minerals: Implications for Ceres Sample Return Analysis.” ACS Earth and Space Chem 2025, in press.
  2. Keller, F.; Kataria, T.; Barge, L. M.; Chen, P.; Yung, Y.; Weber J. M.* “An Exploration of Origin of Life for Exoplanetary Science” Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Science, 2025, 12, 1544426.
  3. Marlin, T. C.; Weber, J. M.*; Sheppard, R. Y.; Perl, S.; Diener, D.; Baum, M. M.; Barge, L. M.* “Chemical Gardens as Analogues for Prebiotic Chemistry on Ocean Worlds.” CHEM, 2025, 11, 102289
  4. Weber, J. M. ‡*; Czaplinski, E. C.‡; Henderson, B. L.; Barge, L. M.; Castillo-Rogez, J. C.; Hodyss, R. “Photochemical Stability and Reactivity of Sodium Pyruvate: Implications for Organic Analysis on Ceres” ACS Earth and Space Chemistry. 2024, 8, 1385 – 1393
  5. Weber, J. M.; Marlin, T. C.; Prakash, M.; Teece, B. L.; Dzurilla, K. Barge, L. M. “A Review on Hypothesized Metabolic Pathways on Europa and Enceladus: Space-Flight Detection Considerations” Life 2023, 13, 1726.
  6. Goldman, A. G.*; Weber, J. M.; LaRowe, D. E.; Barge, L. M.* “ Electron Transport Chains as a Window into the Earliest Stages of Evolution.” PNAS 2023, 120, e2210924120.
  7. Chodas; M; Ono, H.; Weber, J.; Rodriguez, L.; Hockman, B.; Mitchell, K.L., Cable, M.L. “Enceladus Vent Explorer Mission Architecture Trade Study.” IEEE, 2022, 2143 3.
  8. Barge, L. M*.; Flores, E.; Weber, J. M.; Fraeman, A. A.; Yung, Y. L.; VanderVelde, D.; Martinez, E.; Castonguay, A.; Billings, K.; Baum, M. M. “Prebiotic Reactions in a Mars Analog Iron Mineral System: Effects of Nitrate, Nitrite, and Ammonia on Amino Acid Formation.” Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 2022, 336, 469-479.
  9. Weber, J. M.;‡*; Tran, T. H. ‡ “Synthesizing Bioactive Molecules: Synergies between Drug Discovery Techniques and Astrobiology Research.” ACS Earth and Space Chem. 2022, 6, 1213-1220.
  10. Prakash, M.; Weber, J. M.*; Rodriguez, L. E.; Sheppard, R. Y.; Barge, L. M. “Database on Mineral Mediated Carbon Reduction: Implications for Future Research.” International Journal of Astrobiology. 2022, 21, 423-440.
  11. 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 2022, 22, 25-34.
  12. Lee, C.*; Weber, J. M.; Rodriguez, L. E.; Sheppard, R. Y.; Barge, L. M.; Berger, E. L.; Burton, A. S. “Chirality in organic and mineral systems: A review of reactivity and alteration processes relevant to prebiotic chemistry and life detection missions.” Symmetry, 2022, 14, 460.
  13. Barge, L. M.*; Rodriguez, L. E.; Weber, J. M.; Theiling, B. P. “Determining the ‘Biosignature Threshold’ for life detection on biotic, abiotic, or prebiotic worlds.” Astrobiology 2022, 22, 481-493.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.
  14. 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
  15. 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
  16. 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.
  17. Weber, J. M.*; Barge, L. M. "Iron-Silicate Chemical Garden Morphology and Reactivity with Alpha-Keto Acids." ChemSystemsChem 2021, 3, e2000058.
  18. 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.
  19. 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.
  20. Weber, J. M.; Longstreet, A. R.; Jamison, T. F.* “Bench-Stable Nickel Precatalysts with Heck-type Activation.” Organometallics 2018, 37, 2716–2722.
  21. 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.
  22. 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.