Dr. Samantha Gilbert-Janizek

Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow (UC Riverside)

Dual-Title PhD in Astronomy & Astrobiology

Studying how we will characterize the atmospheres of exo-Earths to search for life

Postdoctoral Research

UC Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, UC Riverside (2026–)

As a UC Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Riverside, I will extend my thesis work on establishing the observational requirements of the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), NASA's next flagship mission that will detect and characterize the atmospheres of Earth-like planets. This project will incorporate novel laboratory measurements of gas properties into radiative transfer models to ensure that HWO is capable of identifying high-specificity biosignature gases in the atmospheres of Earth-like exoplanets.

Figure summarizing the postdoctoral research project — This figure summarizes the premise of my upcoming work. Please reach out if you wish to use this figure!

The effect of spectral resolution on biosignature detection via reflected light observations of the Earth through time

Figure from the spectral resolution paper — This figure summarizes the changing composition of Earth's atmosphere through time, and depicts the corresponding reflected light spectra that represent these atmospheric states. I created this figure for *Krissansen-Totton et al. 2026* , which was recently published in the journal *Astrobiology* .

Published in The Astrophysical Journal (2026)

A whole-planet model of the Earth without life for terrestrial exoplanet studies

Figure from the abiotic Earth model paper — A schematic summarizing the model upgrades I made to VPLanet, including geochemical processes and radiative transfer for solving for surface temperature.

Accepted at The Planetary Science Journal (2026)

Retrieved Atmospheres and Inferred Surface Properties for Terrestrial Exoplanets Using Transmission and Reflected Light Spectroscopy

Figure from the retrieval paper — This work covers a lot of ground. As part of our explorations, we found that HWO-like reflected light spectroscopy could be weakly sensitive to the vertical distribution of atmospheric ozone. In our atmosphere, the abundance of ozone near the surface is low, but swells as you rise into the stratosphere, forming our UV-protective ozone layer.

Published in The Planetary Science Journal (2024)

Raising eSTEAM: Grad Student-Led Prison Outreach Initiative

During my PhD, I founded and led a group of UW graduate students providing mentorship, tutoring, and STEM enrichment opportunities to incarcerated youth in the Seattle area. With the leadership and edication of current UW graduate students, eSTEAM's efforts continue today!

Student drawings from a solar viewing session — During a series of summer activities in 2024, eSTEAM student participants recorded their observations of the Sun -- note their consistent identification of sunspots.

Covered by Popular Science and Astrobites