Coffee Chat

Brett and Brenne Gregory

The Grab & GO

1. The chemical diversity of giant-planet nurseries as revealed by ALMA

Booth et al. arXiv (AJ)
​https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.01731   

2. Sulfur-Bearing Cyclic Hydrocarbons in Space

Araki et al. arXiv
https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.23299     

3. Laboratory Detection and Rotational Spectroscopy of trans-HNSO: Implications for Astronomical Observations

Lattanzi et al. arXiv (Frontiers)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.22548   

4. Rotational Spectra and Search for Aromatic Imines: 9-Iminofluorene and Benzophenone imine

Ren et al. arXiv (ApJ)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.06579        

5. Photochemistry of interstellar ice forming Complex Organic Molecules

Munoz Caro et al. arXiv
https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.08413    

6. High deuteration of methanol in L1544

Spezzano et al. arXiv (ACS Earth & Space Chemistry)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.09110        

7. High-energy astrochemistry in the molecular interstellar medium

Gaches et al. arXiv (ACS Earth & Space Chemistry)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.10060   

8. Laboratory rotational spectroscopy and interstellar search for the protein precursor 4-oxobutanenitrile (HCOCH2CH2CN)

Rivilla et al. arXiv (MNRAS)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.11500          

9. New Neutral–Neutral Pathways in the Chemistry of Silicon- and Sulfur-bearing Molecules in the Cold Interstellar Medium

Costa et al. ApJ
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae2253           

10. MAGellanic Outflow and chemistry Survey (MAGOS): Hot cores in the LMC

Shimonishi et al. arXiv (ApJS)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.15983       

Single-Origin Brew

Brett McGuire and Suchitra Narayanan

Percolator

• New Telescopes from Schmidt Observatories

Chalkboard

• Upcoming Meetings

• • Registration for "Global Astrochemistry Lecture Series - Astrochemistry: From the Big Bang to Life" online course is now Open!  GALS is aimed at providing a broad overview of scientific issues, problems, achievements, and open questions in astrochemistry; and at helping senior undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as early career scientists to expand their interests and develop a firm understanding of this area, sufficient to choose an appropriate direction for their future career. The course is open to students and scientists from all over the world.
    
    Registration for free before the end of January.
    
    https://www.astrochemistry.de/online-course/ 

  • There is a session "The Icy Universe Revealed by JWST" sponsored by the American Chemical Society Astrochemistry subdivision at the spring meeting in Atlanta, GA March 22-26, 2026.  Abstract submission has already passed, but registration is open for some time, yet.
    
    

  • There is a conference, Exploring the Aromatic Universe in the JWST Era, to be held July 6-10 in London, Ontario. This symposium will bring together experts from observational astronomy, laboratory astrophysics, theoretical modeling, and quantum chemistry to explore the latest discoveries and future frontiers in PAH and fullerene research. With a special emphasis on extragalactic PAH studies, participants will discuss how new observational capabilities (e.g., JWST, SPHEREx) and cutting-edge theoretical and experimental approaches can expand our understanding of these key interstellar species.  https://www.aromaticuniverse.space/
    
    

  • There will be many astrochemistry sessions at the International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy June 22-26 in Champaign-Urbana, IL.  Abstract submission will open in February with a deadline at the beginning of March.
    
    

  • There will be a session at COSPAR 2026 entitled: “Interstellar Chemistry, Interstellar Origins: Observations, Experiments, Models and Theory of the Molecular Evolution of the Universe.”  COSPAR will be August 1-9 in Florence, Italy.
    
    

  • It looks like the 2026 European Conference on Laboratory Astrophysics will be held 21-25 September, 2026, in Heidelberg.
    
    

  • Save the date for “Cosmic rays 4: The salt of the star formation recipe” October 5-9 in Pisa, Italy.

• Job Opportunities

• There is a PhD opportunity in high-resolution molecular spectroscopy applied to astrochemistry, based at the Institute of Molecular Science in Orsay (ISMO), University of Paris-Saclay, France under the direction of Marie-Aline Martin-Drumel. The PhD project, “QUAntum chemical and experimental Spectroscopy of Astrochemical Reactive isomers (QUASAR)”, aims to identify and characterize reactive molecules of astrochemical relevance by combining high-resolution gas-phase spectroscopy with high-level quantum chemical calculations. The fellow will spend 2 years at ISMO (France) performing experimental rotational spectroscopy using state-of-the-art millimeter-wave and terahertz instruments, and 1 year at the University of Bologna (Italy) conducting quantum chemical calculations under the supervision of Prof. Cristina Puzzarini. The resulting laboratory spectra will support astronomical searches in existing radio and submillimeter surveys.
  
  https://lightinparis.eu/
  
  

• The Ennis laboratory is excited to announce a full PhD scholarship is available in the field of planetary ice spectroscopy, to support our team’s recent success in obtaining a Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fund grant “Laboratory exploration of clathrate hydrate chemistry leading to the synthesis of amino acids: Assisting NASA Dragonfly's search for the origin-of-life on Titan.” Applications are welcome from students, both domestic and international, who have completed an undergraduate, Honours or Masters degree. It is preferred that the successful candidate will possess experience in physical chemistry/molecular physics laboratory techniques, specifically exposure to one or more of: high vacuum systems, vibrational spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, or x-ray diffraction. Experience with DFT methods would also be of benefit. Ideally, the successful candidate will be able to commence the PhD project by 6 April 2026.  They request applications (single page cover letter, CV with referees and transcripts) to be emailed to Courtney Ennis (courtney.ennis@otago.ac.nz) by Sunday 15 February.
  
  

• There is a postdoc position available to work with German Molpeceres in the Astrophysics Group at CSIC in Spain.  During the first stages of the project, the successful candidate will contribute to the development of a database of detected and potentially detectable interstellar isomers, together with the physical descriptors that will aid in their detection. In parallel, the candidate will develop machine learned interatomic potentials to investigate key reactions on interstellar substrates through molecular dynamics simulations, focusing on the partitioning among the different isomeric channels after the reactions.

The expected start date is around April of 2026.  Interested parties should send a CV to German (german.molpeceres@iff.csic.es)

• There’s an opening for a postdoc in the McGuire group at MIT.  We’re looking for a postdoc with extensive software development experience to lead efforts to modernize some open source code for spectroscopic simulation and analysis, as well as machine-learning backed tools.  The work will be done in close consultation with observatory staff at NRAO.  Application review begins January 28th.
  
  https://aas.org/jobregister/ad/5c8a9a22
  
  

• There is a Faculty position in Laboratory Astrophysics open at Leiden Observatory.  The successful candidate will carry out a strong and impactful research program in the laboratory, and play an important role in its further development. The Leiden Laboratory for Astrophysics has a strong history in astrophysical laboratory experiments, including both gas-phase and solid-state processes (see labastro.strw.leidenuniv.nl). Furthermore, the successful candidate will contribute as a lecturer to the educational program of the Observatory and act as supervisor of BSc and MSc research projects within the Laboratory for Astrophysics.

Application deadline is January 30th.

https://aas.org/jobregister/ad/6579b201