When Erika Flores applied for an internship at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2014, she wasn’t entirely sure her undergraduate work in environmental science was a good fit for a place known for working much further afield.
“I wanted to fix our planet,” Flores said recently. “I didn’t really see myself studying space.”
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Not only did she land the internship at La Cañada Flintridge Institution Laboratory of Origins and Habitabilitybut his contribution also launched an ongoing partnership between Cal State Los Angeles’ civil engineering department and a lab dedicated to understanding how life begins.
“I didn’t see myself in an astrobiology lab,” Flores said from her office at the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts, where she has worked since 2023 as an engineering associate.
But it turns out that understanding how microorganisms appeared in Earth’s water is valuable knowledge for those tasked with cleaning up that supply today, his mentor at JPL said.
“There’s a lot of overlap between wastewater and astrobiology,” said Laurie Barge, a JPL scientist who co-directs the Origins and Habitability Lab with researcher Jessica Weber. “It sounds strange, but it’s true.”
JPL scientist Laurie Barge speaks to interns at JPL’s Origins and Habitability Lab.
(Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)
This symmetry between the biology of our planet and more distant worlds led to a partnership between Barge and Weber’s lab and that of Flores’ former advisor, Arezoo Khodayari, an associate professor of civil engineering at Cal State LA.
After nearly a decade of collaboration, Barge and Khodayari recently received a NASA grant that will cover up to six lab internships for Khodayari’s students over the next two years.
The price is one of the 11 that NASA’s Science Mission Directorate has brought to universities that have traditionally not been part of the process that brings new scientists to the space agency.
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1. Cal State LA students Julia Chavez, left, and Cathy Trejo conduct an experiment that simulates the oceans of early Earth and possibly other planets. (Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)
“We are intentionally increasing equitable access to NASA for our nation’s best and brightest talent,” Shahra Lambert, NASA’s senior advisor for engagement, said in a statement.
The two scientists met through Flores, who, with Barge’s encouragement, decided to pursue a master’s degree at Cal State LA while interning in the Origins and Habitability Lab.
While Khodayari’s research at Cal State LA’s Environmental Sustainability and Pollution Control Laboratory focuses on managing contaminants here on Earth, she and Barge immediately saw parallels with the lab’s exploration of the origins and habitability of conditions that could give rise to life across the universe.
“The fate of these chemicals in an aqueous environment is important to both fields,” Khodayari said. “All of these different projects have a chemistry in common.”
After the success of Flores’ internship, the two scientists began looking for ways to introduce planetary science to students who might not have considered it as part of their training and who lacked access to the tools needed for sophisticated research.
Cal State LA’s Arezoo Khodayari has worked with JPL for years to bring interns to NASA’s center in Southern California.
(Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)
Eduardo Martinez was studying for a master’s degree in civil engineering in 2018 when Khodayari called him into his office and asked if he would be interested in working for JPL.
“I was a little surprised,” recalls Martinez, who was born in Mexico and raised in Los Angeles. “I thought, ‘JPL? Like, THE “The jet propulsion laboratory?”
He was immediately hooked. As a civil engineering student, Martinez was interested in how phosphorus and nitrogen affect water quality, leading to algae blooms and low oxygen levels when released in large quantities into freshwater. During his internship, he was a lead author on a research paper with Barge, Khodayari and others on how nitrates react with iron compounds in aqueous environments.
His work at the Origins and Habitability Lab showed him that these same elements also play a crucial role in the formation and maintenance of life, making them a key focus for NASA astrobiologists. “I had never made that connection before, and it was just fascinating to see,” Martinez said.
That experience inspired him to pursue a doctorate in geosciences at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. His research focuses on how certain isotopic compositions in clay minerals could indicate past life in samples returned from Mars.
Julia Chavez and Cathy Trejo congratulate each other at JPL. They are among many Cal State LA students interning at JPL’s Origin and Habitability Laboratory.
(Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)
Since Flores made the switch from environmental science to space, five Cal State LA students have interned at the JPL lab. The NASA grant will accelerate that process, allowing more students to discover research opportunities that might not otherwise have crossed their path.
This summer, interns Julia Chavez and Cathy Trejo donned goggles and white coats to inject liquids into a solution of iron chloride. The experiment mimics the reaction between seawater and the substance that rises up hydrothermal vents, an energy source for life on Earth and a possible mechanism by which organisms developed here.
“Five or six years ago, I didn’t really imagine myself doing research,” said Chavez, who completed his master’s degree this year. “Being here, I couldn’t imagine any other path.”
