Charles Cockell
Professor CS Cockell, FRSE
- Position
- Professor of Astrobiology
- Category
- Academic staff
- Location
-
James Clerk Maxwell Building (JCMB)
Room 1502
- Email: ccockell [at] ed.ac.uk
- Tel: +44 (0)131 650 2961
- Personal home page
- Edinburgh Research Explorer profile
Charles is a member of the following School research institute and research areas:
Research institute
Research areas
Research interests
1986-1989 BSc, Bristol University, Biochemistry
1990-1994 DPhil, Corpus Christi College, Oxford University, Molecular Biophysics
1995-1997 National Academy of Sciences Associateship, NASA Ames Research Center, California, Exobiology
1997-1998 Visiting Scholarship, Dept. of Biology, Stanford University
1998-1999 Visiting Scientist, Dept. of Plant Sciences, University of Arizona
2000-2005 Research Scientist, British Antarctic Survey, Microbiology
2005-2011 Professor of Geomicrobiology, Open University
2011- Professor of Astrobiology, University of Edinburgh
My research group is interested in astrobiology and microbiology. Our particular research focus lies in the study of life in extreme environments, understanding the diversity, processes and biosignatures of life in extremes, and the potential habitability of extraterrestrial environments.
We have done some of our work through the UK Centre for Astrobiology in 2011, a virtual centre that we set up. Through this centre we've implemented a variety of activities from establishing the world's first underground astrobiology lab that we've used to study life in the deep subsurface through to launching several experiments to the International Space Station. We have used this centre to develop education projects, including the Life Beyond project in Scottish prisons. You can read about this virtual centre here: www.astrobiology.ac.uk
I am Course Organiser and teach on the pre-honours Astrobiology course (PHYS08051) at the University of Edinburgh (with Ken Rice). It seeks to give students a grounding in interdisciplinary science and the diverse disciplines including physics, astronomy, geology, biology and chemistry relevant to astrobiology.
I oversee and teach half of the SUPA Astrobiology and Search for Life course (SUPAASL), a graduate course in astrobiology.
I teach and run a Massive Open On-Line Learning (MOOC) introductory course on Astrobiology (https://www.coursera.org/learn/astrobiology). The course has attracted 130,000 students since it began.
I also direct Life Beyond, an education program for prisons that uses space exploration and astrobiology to advance science education and space exploration through prisons.
Charles currently offers the following PhD project opportunities:
Charles has featured in the following recent School news stories:
- New MSc in Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences at the University of Edinburgh
- Triple success in Astronomy Grants
- Mining rocks in orbit could aid deep space exploration
- Launch of BioAsteroid experiment to space station
- World first as kits designed to extract metals from Moon and Mars blast off for space station tests
Life in space
In this video Charles describes his research on outer space as an extreme environment. Only the most resistant microorganisms can survive there. By studying how they fare in space we can learn about how life prospers in extreme environments.Recent publications
- , Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 129, 9, p. 1-14
- , Space policy, p. 1-9
- , Astrobiology, 24, 6, p. 643-668
- Populating The Milky Way Characterising Planet Demographics by Combining Galaxy Formation Simulations and Planet Population Synthesis Models DOI, Astronomy and Astrophysics, 686, p. 1-17
- , Frontiers in Microbiology, 15, p. 1-16