19 April 2024
Former postdoctoral researcher Dr Ruiqin Yi, now Professor Ruiqin Yi, officially gets his new office at Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences! Ruiqin will be starting his own independent research group — well done Professor Yi!
15-17 April 2024
Dr Fahrenbach takes a tour of Texas, visiting Texas A&M University and University of Houston to give talks on prebiotic chemistry at the Chemistry Departments there!
8 April 2024
The Fahrenbach Group welcomes Dr Ray DiNardi as one of the newest members!
15 March 2024
Dr Fahrenbach travels to University of Melbourne to give a talk about autocatalysis to the School of Chemistry!
6 February 2024
Luke Marshall publishes his first first-author paper in ACS Chemical Biology on RNA-binding peptides. Great work, Luke!
5 February 2024
Dev Chauhan just passed his first-year PhD conformation with flying colours and wins best presentation for his first-year talk in front of the School. Nice work, Dev!
2 February 2024
Dr Jonas Kaltbeitzel presents at the RACI Supramolecular Conference at UNSW on self-replicating peptide nanocapsules. Nice presentation!
10 January 2024
Dr Fahrenbach flies to Japan to give an invited talk at the Joint CO World & 12th ELSI Symposium at the Tokyo Institute of Technology!
8 December 2023
Congratulations to Yaam Deckel for graduating with a First Class Honours Degree! Our hats are off to you!
5 December 2023
Luke Steller officially received his PhD today! Congratulations, Dr Steller!
16 September 2023
Megan Amos and Yaam Deckel travel to New Zealand at the University of Auckland to visit the labs of Professor Kathy Campbell and Professor Kim Handley to get up close and personal with some hot springs. Have a good trip!
15 September 2023
Dr Fahrenbach gives the UNSW Chemical Society’s “Ex-President’s Talk” titled “Embracing Complexity in Prebiotic Chemistry: My Academic Story”.
7 September 2023
Dr Ruiqin Yi publishes a JACS Au Full Article on carbonyl migration — and gets the cover to boot! Way to go, Ruiqin!
29 August 2023
Jeremy Tran publishes he first first-author research article in Chemical Science! We expect many more in the future, Jeremy!
28 August 2023
Dr Fahrenbach travels to Kiama, Australia to give an invited talk at the SHCHC.
18 August 2023
The Fahrenbach Group welcomes Professor Ram Krishnamurthy to Sydney as the 2023 UNSW Howard Lecturer! Ram spent about two weeks in the Sydney area giving a total of six different lectures. Thanks for the amazing talks, Ram!
1 August 2023
The Fahrenbach Group welcomes Dr Jonas Kaltbeitzel as its latest member, who just started in the lab last week. Welcome, Jonas!
24 July 2023
Members of the Australian Centre for Astrobiology treat Professor Juan Perez-Mercader from Harvard Origins Initiative to dinner after his amazing lecture on self-replicating vesicles!
10 July 2023
Dr Fahrenbach travels to Pohang, South Korea at POSTECH to give a talk with the NYU-POSTECH-KAIST-UNSW Joint Symposium!
30 June 2023
Dr Fahrenbach was interviewed by Solutions Science podcast to discuss astrobiology and prebiotic chemistry. Check it on YouTube!
22 June 2023
The recently published worked in Chemical Communications led by Dr Ruiqin Yi of the Fahrenbach Group was covered by Phys.org. Nice!
18 June 2023
Led by world-renowned geologist, Professor Martin Van Kranendonk, Dr Fahrenbach along with Professor Jim Cleaves, Professor Steve Benner and Luke Steller just visited the ~3.5 billion year old fossilized stromatolites in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
15 June 2023
Congratulations to Jeremy Tran, Megan Amos, Jiazheng Cao and Yaam Deckel who all just presented their research at the 2023 Australasia Astrobiology Meeting! Well done!
12 June 2023
The Fahrenbach Group welcomes Siddhant Sharma, a visiting researcher from the University of Delhi. Sid will stay with the Fahrenbach Group until August carrying out experimental and theoretical research on autocatalytic reaction networks. Welcome, Sid!
7 June 2023
Dr Fahrenbach was interviewed live again, this time on ABC Adelaide, check it out! (Skip to the ~1h mark)
https://www.abc.net.au/adelaide/programs/mornings/adelaide-mornings/102424876
30 May 2023
Dr Fahrenbach was interviewed live on ABC Tasmania, check it out!
https://www.abc.net.au/hobart/programs/your-afternoon/dr-albert-fahrenback/102411138
4 May 2023
Congratulations to Renee Lim, former Fahrenbach group Honours student, who just graduated with a dual degree in Law and Advanced Science. Way to go, Renee!
23 March 2023
Congratulations to our PhD student Megan Amos for being awarded the Westpac Future Leaders Scholarship for 2023! The scholarship provides $120,000 in funding over the course of her PhD, which will investigate the potential for ancient microbial life on Mars. See Megan’s profile here and read more about the other 2023 scholars here.
22 March 2023
Dr Fahrenbach was interviewed by the Sydney Morning Herald about a recent article in Nature Communications about the Hayabusa2 Mission. Check it out!
The seeds for life on Earth may have arrived on asteroids
13 February 2023
Welcome Yaam Deckel to the Fahrenbach group! Yaam will be starting her Honours in Chemistry.
10 February 2023
Congratulations Dr Fahrenbach on being appointed the new Director of the Australian Centre for Astrobiology.
From left to right: Albert Fahrenbach (current ACA director) with Martin Van Kranendonk and Malcolm Walter (former ACA directors).
24 November 2022
Congratulations to Honours student Megan for achieving First Class Honours! Megan will be starting a PhD in 2023 with the group in collaboration with Martin Van Kranendonk.
3 November 2022
Dr Fahrenbach travels to Auckland, New Zealand, to participate in the Te Ao Mārama Centre for Fundamental Inquiry workshop at the University of Auckland, hosted by Professor Kathy Campbell.
13 September 2022
Dr Fahrenbach and the Fahrenbach group just landed an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship to support their research into origins-of-life chemistry over the next four years!
6 August 2022
After promotion to Senior Lecturer, Dr Fahrenbach accepted a continuing position with the School of Chemistry!
1 July 2022
Dr Albert Fahrenbach’s application for promotion to Senior Lecturer was officially accepted! Congratulations to Albert!
20 June 2022
Dr Chris Hansen and Dr Albert Fahrenbach visit Royal North Shore Hospital Anesthesiology Department to discuss a potential medical collaboration!
30 May 2022
Welcome Jiazheng Cao (Joe) to the Fahrenbach group. Joe will be studying Masters in Chemistry.
4 May 2022
Luke Steller organizes the STEAM Room as part of National Science Week — a night of science comedy at the Factory Theater with real scientists and professional comedians, featuring Dr Karl! Well done, Luke!
4 May 2022
Folks from the National Measurement Institute visit the Fahrenbach lab to learn more about setting up their own RNA synthesis lab.
1 April 2022
Dr Ruiqin Yi joins the Fahrenbach group! Dr Yi will spend most of his time at the Earth-Life Science Institute at the Tokyo Institute of Technology carrying out experiments with their Gamma Radiolysis Facility. Welcome, Ruiqin!
14 February 2022
New Honours student Megan Amos officially starts her Honours project. Welcome Megan!
13 January 2022
Teja did it again by getting an RTP scholarship to support her as she starts her PhD! Congratulations!
16 December 2021
Teja Senthilkumar officially graduated with he Bachelors in Medicinal Chemistry with First Class Honours! Way to go, Teja!
8 December 2021
The Fahrenbach Lab gets a visit from MPs Geoff Lee and Gabrielle Upton to see how the NSW government can further support the growing RNA research ecosystem in Sydney!
2 November 2021
Luke Marshall graduates with his Degree of Masters of Philosophy for the work he did in collaboration with the Fahrenbach and Thordarson groups. Luke plans to continue on with his PhD. Great job, Luke!
21 October 2022
Congratulations to Luke Steller and Jeremy Tran for winning the Australian Centre for Astrobiology Public Outreach Fund Award! Nice job guys!
11 August 2021
Congratulations to Ella who graduated with her Bachelors in Science with First Class Honours! Nice one, Ella!
3 June 2021
Dr Fahrenbach helps start the inaugural Prebiotic Chemistry and Early Earth Environments (PCE3) seminar series supported by the NASA Astrobiology program.
Check it out, the seminars are uploaded to Youtube! http://prebioticchem.info/seminar-series/index.html
10 May 2021
Dr Christine Poon joins the Fahrenbach group. Welcome, Christine!
30 April 2021
Dr. Fahrenbach was recently interviewed in the news by the American Geophysical Union (AGU), check it out!
Cloud-to-Ground Lightning May Have Struck a Key Ingredient for Life
14 December 2020
The Fahrenbach group welcomes Tejaswi Senthilkumar as a 2021 Honours student!
13 November 2020
The Fahrenbach group scores a Discovery Project grant from the Australian Research Council (ARC). Check it out!
Project Title: “Continuous Reaction Networks that Model Chemical Evolution of RNA”
https://dataportal.arc.gov.au/NCGP/Web/Grant/Grant/DP210102133
6 November 2020
Congratulations to Jeremy and Renee on submitting their Honours Theses! Great work!
22 October 2020
The Fahrenbach group opines in the recent issue of Nature Chemistry News and Views on future directions for prebiotic chemistry. Check it out! Here’s a snippet…
“The theoretical physicist Paul Dirac famously emphasized the importance of beauty7 in guiding one’s physical equations. Chemical equations also possess a certain beauty. The α-ketoacid r-TCA cycle analogue discovered by the Krishnamurthy and Springsteen team is elegant in its mechanism yet far-reaching in its complexity — one can’t help but wonder if a similar approach of appealing to beauty as a guide ought to be applied to origins of life research.”
14 October 2020
Congratulations to Renee for her recently published review in Pure and Applied Chemistry!
4 June 2020
The Fahrenbach group’s recent publication in PNAS was highlighted by Forbes! Check it out!
1 February 2020
The Fahrenbach group welcomes its first Honours students, Jeremy Tran and Renee Lim! Welcome both!
Jeremy Tran lands a UNSW Science Vacation Research Scholarship to work with the Fahrenbach group over the Summer break. Congratulations to Jeremy!
1 July 2019
Our application for free access to the gamma radiolysis facility at ANSTO was accepted! ANSTO here we come!
28 June 2019
Dr. Ruiqin Yi is back this time staying for a month to work on a manuscript. Here is a group photo while he was here!
12 June 2019
Just moved into the new AMAZING labs in the Science and Engineering building. The Fahrenbach Group now has a dedicated synthesis lab, instrument lab and origin-of-life gas lab. Take a look!
26 April 2019
Just presented at the workshop “Machina Ex Machina” at the University of Arizona in Tuscon hosted by my colleague Dr Zach Adam. Had a great time discussion abiotic reaction networks and how they can give rise to RNA!
19 February 2019
Just had the wonderful opportunity to present at the CRC “Emergence of Life” Workshop hosted by Dieter Braun and Clemens Richert held in Brixen. A lot of great student talks and really good German food!
20 January 2019
Dr. Ruiqin Yi is visiting from the Earth-Life Science Institute at Tokyo Tech in Japan for a week to discuss results from our collaboration involving radiolytic reaction networks. Welcome Ruiqin!
17 September 2018
Just moved to Sydney and started setting up the lab at UNSW!