Lígia Fonseca Coelho earned her master’s degree in Microbiology and her doctorate in Bioengineering from Instituto Superior Técnico. On March 28th, she received the news that she is part of the group of eight early career researchers awarded the 51 Pegasi b Fellowship, a post-doctoral fellowship established by the Heising-Simons Foundation that encourages theoretical and experimental research into planetary astronomy. In this way, the Técnico alumna will continue the work she has been doing at Cornell University, studying the detection of microorganisms on Earth and beyond.
“On a personal level, it is an immense honour to be awarded this fellowship”, explains Lígia Fonseca Coelho, while in the scientific field “it recognises the importance of biological sciences in the growing search for extraterrestrial life, as well as in the fields of astrobiology and astrophysics”. The researcher explains that she will “characterise microorganisms to study their ecosystems and their detectability on Earth, in the solar system and on icy exoplanets”. The idea is to “enrich the catalogue of biosignatures that will allow future missions to unravel the mysteries of the surface of Jupiter’s Moon Europa as well as its interior, and to use this data to leverage models of exomoons – the moons that orbit exoplanets”.
According to information on the Heising-Simons Foundation website, “during her fellowship, Dr. Fonseca Coelho will grow the most colourful biota (living organisms) imaginable. Through meticulous modeling, she will determine how biopigments (substances produced by living organisms that have a color resulting from selective color absorption) mixed with different materials might appear through a telescope’s lens—equipping future space missions like JUICE and Europa Clipper with the tools to explore the outer edges of the habitable zone in our solar system and beyond”.
The alumna has already carried out cancer research, having produced an anti-cancer peptide that was ultimately named for her, CT-p19LC, during her master’s thesis at Técnico. She is also a co-founder of the AstroCUP project, which studies the feasibility of the use of menstrual cups by astronauts in space missions (the launch of the ‘Baltasar’ rocket served as a test for the project).
From those times, the researcher keeps “colleagues and mentors who became lifelong friends and scientific partners”, highlighting “the exceptional students who also turned out to be excellent colleagues”. Thanks to Técnico’s connection with MIT Portugal, Lígia says she had “the opportunity to explore different fields of science and engineering”, which “contributed to enrich her multidisciplinary training”. “The ability of working across disciplines is fundamental to my research and professional career”, she explains.
Named for the first exoplanet discovered orbiting a Sun-like star, the 51 Pegasi b Fellowship includes funding for independent research over three years, mentorship by an established faculty member at the host institution and an annual summit to develop professional networks, exchange information and ideas, and foster collaboration between fellows.
