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Victoria Meadows
Project Primary Investigator, Assess Task LeadExoplanets, Spectral Modeling, Astronomical Observing
Welcome to the Virtual Planetary Laboratory!
Our team’s research is driven by a single scientific question: “How can we best assess whether an exoplanet supports life?” To answer this, the massively interdisciplinary VPL Team develops and combines knowledge, models, and measurements from many scientific disciplines, to determine how best to tell whether an exoplanet is living or lifeless.
Recent VPL publications
Inferring and Interpreting the Visual Geometric Albedo and Phase Function of Earth.
(The Planetary Science Journal, 2025)
VPL Author: Tyler Robinson
Shedding Light on Large Space-Based Telescopes: Modeling Stray Light due to Primary Mirror Damage from Micrometeoroid Impacts.
(ArXiv, 2025)
VPL authors: Megan Gialluca, Victoria Meadows, Christopher Stark, Aki Roberge, Tyler Robinson
Resurrected nitrogenases recapitulate canonical N-isotope biosignatures over two billion years.
(Nature Comms, 2026)
VPL authors: Kunmanee (Mac) Bubphamanee, Roger Buick, Betül Kaçar
Seafloor weathering can explain the disparate durations of Snowball glaciations.
(Geology, 2025)
VPL authors: Trent Thomas, David Catling
VPL has pioneered key themes in exoplanet astrobiology
The VPL team has spent over 25 years providing the scientific foundation needed to justify and prioritize large space-based telescopes to search for signs of life on exoplanets. The VPL also pioneered several key research themes that now dominate the exoplanet field, including:
- Solar System/exoplanet synergies for terrestrial planets
- the Earth through time as an analog for habitable exoplanets
- star-planet-planetary system interactions and impacts on planetary habitability, and
- the importance of measurement verification and environmental context, including ruling out planetary false positives, when interpreting claims of biosignature detection.
VPL research tasks advance exoplanet biosignature science
Here at the SETI Institute, VPL advances interdisciplinary biosignature science through the identify, interpret, detect and assess research tasks, which are funded under NASA's ICAR Program.
identify: identifies new potential biosignatures for exoplanets be examining processes and environments for the early Earth.
interpret: develops an improved understanding of abiotic mimics and the statistical framework needed to assess biosignature detection, and interpret biosignatures in the context of their environment.
detect: determines the detectability of exoplanet biosignatures and their environmental context for multiple telescopes and undertakes biosignature assessment activities that will support and enhance the exoplanet science return from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Habitable Worlds Observatory, a future NASA space-based direct imaging telescope.
assess: assesses the detectability of biosignatures in observed and simulated telescope data (Earth, TRAPPIST-1, the local solar neighborhood) and our ability to interpret observed biosignatures as being due to life or abiotic planetary processes, for individual or ensembles of planets.
VPL research tasks advance exoplanet biosignature science
Our research personnel contribute to the NASA Nexus for Exoplanet Systems Science Research Coordination Network, and provide both key scientific leadership for current and future NASA missions, including JWST and HWO, and upcoming ground-based Extremely Large Telescopes, while engaging the public in the excitement of NASA’s planet detection and characterization efforts.
VPL Team
Organizational chart
VPL
Leadership
Victoria Meadows
Project Primary Investigator, Assess Task LeadExoplanets, Spectral Modeling, Astronomical Observing
Hannah Dawson
Project AdministratorOceanography, Geochemistry, Molecular Biology, Microbial Ecology
Rika Anderson
Co-Investigator, Identify task leadExtremophiles, Virology, Oceanography, Geonomics
Natasha Batalha
Co-Investigator, Detect task leadExoplanet Observations, Atmospheric Photochemistry, Spectral Modeling
Heather Graham
Co-Investigator, Interpret task leadExoplanet agnostic biosignatures, Statistics
Joshua Krissansen-Totton
Co-Investigator, Interpret task leadBiosignatures, Biogeochmial Cycles, Exoplanets
Andrew Lincowski
Co-Investigator, Detect task leadExoplanets, Climate Modeling, Spectral Modeling
Jacob Lustig Yaeger
Co-Investigator, Detect task leadExoplanets, Spectral Retrieval, Spectral Modeling
Tyler Robinson
Co-Investigator, Deputy Principal Investigator, Assess task leadExoplanets, Spectral Modeling, Planetary Observations, Atmospheric Modeling
Edward Schwieterman
Co-Investigator, Identify task leadExoplanets, Spectral Modeling, Atmospheric Chemistry, Biosignatures
Exoplanets, Spectral Modeling, Astronomical Observing
Hannah Dawson
Project AdministratorOceanography, Geochemistry, Molecular Biology, Microbial Ecology
Rika Anderson
Co-Investigator, Identify task leadExtremophiles, Virology, Oceanography, Geonomics
Natasha Batalha
Co-Investigator, Detect task leadExoplanet Observations, Atmospheric Photochemistry, Spectral Modeling
Heather Graham
Co-Investigator, Interpret task leadExoplanet agnostic biosignatures, Statistics
Joshua Krissansen-Totton
Co-Investigator, Interpret task leadBiosignatures, Biogeochmial Cycles, Exoplanets
Andrew Lincowski
Co-Investigator, Detect task leadExoplanets, Climate Modeling, Spectral Modeling
Jacob Lustig Yaeger
Co-Investigator, Detect task leadExoplanets, Spectral Retrieval, Spectral Modeling
Tyler Robinson
Co-Investigator, Deputy Principal Investigator, Assess task leadExoplanets, Spectral Modeling, Planetary Observations, Atmospheric Modeling
Edward Schwieterman
Co-Investigator, Identify task leadExoplanets, Spectral Modeling, Atmospheric Chemistry, Biosignatures
VPL
All Team Members
Eric Agol
Co-InvestigatorExoplanet Observations, Exoplanet Detection, Orbital Dynamics
Laura Amaral
Early Career ResearcherSpace weather, planetary habitability, stellar activity, low mass stars, atmospheric escape
Rika Anderson
Co-Investigator, Identify task leadExtremophiles, Virology, Oceanography, Geonomics
Daniel Apai
CollaboratorExoplanet Observations, Brown Dwarfs, Survey Formulation and Execution
Giada Arney
Co-InvestigatorExoplanets, Organic Hazes, Venus, Biosignatures, Atmospheric Chemistry
Rory Barnes
CollaboratorExoplanets, Orbital Dynamics, Atmospheric Evolution, Habitability
Natasha Batalha
Co-Investigator, Detect task leadExoplanet Observations, Atmospheric Photochemistry, Spectral Modeling
Emeline Bolmont
CollaboratorPlanetary orbital simulations, Planetary climate simulations
Kimberly Bott
CollaboratorPolarimetry, Spectral Modeling, Exoplanets
Wynter Broussard
Early Career ResearcherEarth and Planetary Sciences, Astrobiology
Roger Buick
Co-InvestigatorGeomicrobiology, Geology, Early Earth
David Catling
CollaboratorClimate, Atmospheric chemistry, Extreme environments
Eric Agol
Co-InvestigatorExoplanet Observations, Exoplanet Detection, Orbital Dynamics
Laura Amaral
Early Career ResearcherSpace weather, planetary habitability, stellar activity, low mass stars, atmospheric escape
Rika Anderson
Co-Investigator, Identify task leadExtremophiles, Virology, Oceanography, Geonomics
Daniel Apai
CollaboratorExoplanet Observations, Brown Dwarfs, Survey Formulation and Execution
Giada Arney
Co-InvestigatorExoplanets, Organic Hazes, Venus, Biosignatures, Atmospheric Chemistry
Rory Barnes
CollaboratorExoplanets, Orbital Dynamics, Atmospheric Evolution, Habitability
Natasha Batalha
Co-Investigator, Detect task leadExoplanet Observations, Atmospheric Photochemistry, Spectral Modeling
Emeline Bolmont
CollaboratorPlanetary orbital simulations, Planetary climate simulations
Kimberly Bott
CollaboratorPolarimetry, Spectral Modeling, Exoplanets
Wynter Broussard
Early Career ResearcherEarth and Planetary Sciences, Astrobiology
Roger Buick
Co-InvestigatorGeomicrobiology, Geology, Early Earth
David Catling
CollaboratorClimate, Atmospheric chemistry, Extreme environments
Contact
For collaboration opportunities, student inquiries, or general questions about our work, we’d be glad to hear from you.
[email protected]
Opportunities
We will share openings for students, postdoctoral researchers, and collaborators as they arise. Please check back for updates.
Contact
For collaboration opportunities, student inquiries, or general questions about our work, we’d be glad to hear from you.
[email protected]
Opportunities
We will share openings for students, postdoctoral researchers, and collaborators as they arise. Please check back for updates.