Dr. Amber Young (she/her/hers)

Astrobiologist
Planetary Systems Laboratory (693)

Did you always know that you wanted to be an Astrobiologist?

Actually, not at first. I didn’t always know that Astrobiology was a thing, and I didn’t know that becoming an astrobiologist was a career path in Astronomy. When I was really young, I knew that I wanted to be an astronomer, and I wanted to work for NASA; that was my dream job and goal ever since the 6th grade. During that time in elementary school, science, and astronomy in particular, was my favorite subject, so it was at that time that I knew I wanted to be an astronomer. It wasn’t until way later in undergrad that I decided I wanted to become an astrobiologist. That decision stemmed from doing a research project related to Mars, where I sought to understand the presence of methane on Mars and whether or not the methane that was there could have been produced by life. This project was the first time I delved into the question of the potential for life to exist on another planet. It was just so fascinating to me; I knew that I wanted to center my work around answering that question of “Is there life out there?”. So, that first project really helped me frame my career path in wanting to continue to be involved in astrobiology and pursue this career.

Dinner with some colleagues who are working on the Habitable Worlds Observatory mission concept. Photo taken during the American Astronomical Society Conference in 2023. Photo order starting from the left side of the table: Me, Thomas Fauchez, Jaime’s Partner (Preston), Jamie Crouse, Daria Pidhorodetska, Chris Stark, Jane Rigby, Lee Feinberg, Marc Postman, Aki Roberge, Julie Crooke, Bertrand Mennesson, Shawn Domagal-Goldman, Scott Gaudi.
Credit: Unknown.

What science questions do you investigate?

I mainly study the search for life and try to answer the question: “Are we alone in the universe? Or not?” That, at its core, is the foundational scientific question that all of my research tries to funnel toward and help us better understand. The Mars research project that I described above focuses on addressing that question in terms of the search for life within the solar system, whereas now, I’ve shifted focus toward understanding whether or not life could exist outside of our solar system on planets that orbit other stars. When I was going through the PhD phase of my career, all of my dissertation involved studying Earth as an exoplanet. This is because life on Earth is still the only existence of life that we know about. Being able to understand the different evolutionary phases of Earth’s history, where life was present but very distinct compared to other epochs, is key to developing a starting point in what to look for, and where to look for it on exoplanets.

What is one research project that you are particularly excited about, and why?

The project that I’m most excited about stems from my recent transition to a permanent employee at NASA Goddard through the Pathways program, which is an internship program that involves students who are enrolled full-time and then upon graduating they have the opportunity to convert to a civil servant. Ever since I’ve been occupying this position, I’ve been fully invested in the development of a new upcoming NASA mission called The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). This is considered a flagship mission that is planned to launch within the next couple of decades and right now, it’s in very early stages of development. I’m really excited about it because I’ve been able to get firsthand experience of what goes on with mission development, and this mission concept has explicit goals to search for life beyond our solar system. It is slated to have the capability to search for and characterize potentially Earth-like planets orbiting sun-like stars. The goals of HWO are directly aligned with my ongoing research, and I’m eager to keep using my research and knowledge to help contribute to the development of the mission. When I think about all the success and achievement other missions have accomplished over the years, like Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope, it’s astounding to think about the impact HWO could have for the future. This potential for transformative impact makes me want to be involved with it for the long haul and see this mission through to first light.

Photo of me and some of my mentors standing in front of the James Webb Space Telescope at Goddard in 2016. Of note, standing next to me is Giada Arney who’s a close collaborator and mentor, then next to her is my undergrad mentor Natasha Batalha, then on the end is Shawn Domagal-Goldman my first NASA research advisor.
Credit: Unknown.

How did you end up working at NASA Goddard?

When I was a junior in undergrad, I had a mentor, Natasha Batalha, who was guiding me through my first ever research project. She, at the time, was a graduate student at Penn State and doing research at Goddard. This was the first person I ever collaborated with that was working at Goddard. And when I was approaching graduation, I had reached out to her to see if there were any research opportunities available at Goddard that I could pursue. She ended up putting me in touch with Shawn Domagal-Goldman and helped me set up a meeting with him. When Shawn and I first met, it was over Zoom, and we talked about my research project and the atmospheric modeling that I had been doing. That connection led to him becoming my research advisor and me becoming a post-baccalaureate researcher working full-time on Mars research. That was my first official position at NASA and after that experience, I tried my best to continue pursuing opportunities like NASA grants, fellowships, and programs that would allow me to continue working there and building those connections with the people I worked with.

Photo of me, my mother (Aimee Britt) , my father (Carl Britt), and my older brother (Peter Michael Lopez) at my graduation from Northern Arizona University.
Credit: My husband Menelik.

What is one of your favorite moments in your career so far?

Graduating from Northern Arizona University with my PhD was certainly a big highlight in my career. I spent most of my life being a student, but when I graduated, I experienced a significant transition into the scientist I so desperately wanted to become as a child. Graduate school enabled me to become a published first author, and it felt good to feel like I had meaningfully contributed to the field of astrobiology and help push it forward. So much hard work and effort went into pursuing my education, and I was the first person in my family to ever get a degree, so a lot of it I had to navigate on my own and figure things out as I went along. But when I defended my dissertation and was officially declared a Dr., I celebrated. At graduation, when I heard my name and got to walk across that stage, I celebrated. When people started addressing me as Dr. Young, I celebrated. Finishing my PhD had a lasting effect that has helped me be proud of who I am and look back to acknowledge everything I’ve accomplished.

What skills are most useful to you in your work, and where did you develop those skills?

The nature of my work has helped me develop a lot of skills like communication, writing, and programming. All of them are extremely useful, but my favorite is programming. Because my work involves modeling and computer simulations, I’ve spent a good chunk of time writing and developing code that helps me with my day-to-day research. I mainly code in Python, but know other computing languages like C++, MATLAB, and Fortran. In my senior year of undergrad, I took a computer science course on C++ but, before that, a lot if it was teaching myself and using online resources like Code Academy. I think it’s a really useful skill to have in science because a lot of what we do revolves around problem solving; knowing how to program and write my own codes has helped me solve problems effectively and more efficiently. And when I’m finished developing a code, now I have a something I can re-use, adapt, or share with someone else.

Me and my husband Menelik on our wedding day, June 22nd, 2019.
Credit: My Brother-in-Law Ali.

Tell us about a unique or interesting component of your work-life balance.

In terms of work-life balance, I feel really strongly about being able to maintain that balance and dedicating time to the things and hobbies that I enjoy. Two of the hobbies I’d like to share here are video games and crochet. Video gaming is something I’ve been fond of since childhood; I grew up with things like Nintendo, and to this day I am still an avid gamer. It’s an especially important hobby to me now because my husband Menelik and I like to game together and have bonded over it throughout our relationship. The first game we played co-op together was a PC game called League of Legends where I played the role of Attack, Damage, Carry (ADC) and Menelik was my tried and true Support in the bottom lane. We still play together consistently and more recently we’ve been playing games like Destiny 2 on Xbox and Monster Hunter Rise on Nintendo Switch. Crochet is a hobby that I picked up recently and I’ve taken a liking to crocheting small stuffed animals called amigurumi. I love making them because I’ve become fast enough where I can finish a project in one sitting and get that instant feeling of accomplishment. I also like experimenting with the foundational patterns and shapes that I’ve learned to make new animals as gifts for my friends and family.