Biography:
Stefanie Milam is currently investigating the formation of prebiotic species in irradiated interstellar/cometary ice analogs at the NASA Ames Astrochemistry Laboratory.
Stefanie began pursing a career as an Astrobiologist/Astrochemist by obtaining a B.S. in Chemistry at Kansas Wesleyan University (Salina, KS) in 2002. During this time she worked at an environmental laboratory and had an internship at a local winery as an assistant winemaker and laboratory technician. Her graduate studies pushed her realm of expertise to millimeter/submillimeter astronomy while working for Prof. Lucy Ziurys at the University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ). This work introduced her to the broad field of Astrobiology, which in turn became a career focus. Her thesis included studies of comets, evolved stars, molecular clouds, and planetary nebulae. By understanding what molecules are present in these objects, one can gain a further insight of the chemistry occurring as well as other physical parameters such as temperature, density, age, and abundances. Throughout this work she became involved in NASA’s Deep Impact Ground Based observing team as well as numerous exchange programs with the NASA Astrobiology Institute. She received her Ph.D. in 2007 with the dissertation title "Following Carbon’s Evolutionary Path: From Nucleosynthesis to the Solar System." In an attempt to gain a further understanding of astronomical observations she conducted throughout graduate school, Stefanie opted to work in the Ames Astrochemistry laboratory with Scott Sandford studying photolysis ice chemistry.
In her free time, Stefanie enjoys spending time with her dog Einstein, wine tasting, watching movies, scuba diving, sky diving, and volunteering.
Stefanie left the laboratory in January 2010.
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