2026 LIFE RCN Seminar Series Episode 4: Dr. Mary-Beth Wilhelm and Chanel Vidal

Time: April 7th, 8AM PT/11AM ET

Join us here!

Dr. Mary-Beth Wilhelm

Title: “Coenzymes as connection between mineral-
based and enzymatic catalysis en route to
protometabolism”

Dr. Wilhelm is an astrobiologist at NASA Ames Research Center in California conducting research on biomarker preservation in Mars analog environments. She is leading the development of new technology to search for life on Mars, targeting molecular fossils.

Chanel Vidal

TITLe: “Leveraging Yellowstone National Park as a natural laboratory to investigate lipid distribution across geochemically diverse hot springs”

Chanel is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Geological Science program in School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University and a member of Dr. Everett Shock’s Group Exploring Organic Processes in Geochemistry (GEOPIG) Lab. Her research investigates how the abundances of tetraether and diether core and intact polar lipids are shaped by geochemical processes in Yellowstone National Park (YNP) hot springs. Using a thermodynamic framework, she evaluates lipid properties across geochemical and redox gradients in these environments.

You can join the meeting here.