Michel Nuevo

Affiliation: Coop/BAERI

Phone: (650)604-0789

Email: Michel.Nuevo-1@nasa.gov

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Biography

Michel Nuevo grew up in France, where he studied physico-chemistry and astrophysics at the universities of Orsay (Paris-Sud) and Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris 6). He obtained his master degrees in both Molecular Physico-Chemistry (Paris 11) and Instrumentation in Astrophysics (Paris 6) in 2001 and obtained his Ph.D. degree in early 2005 after working at the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale (Université Paris-Sud, Orsay) in Dr. Louis d’Hendecourt’s “Astrochimie Expérimentale” team. The title of his Ph.D. dissertation was “Photolysis of interstellar ices and production of organic molecules: Laboratory simulations” (in French). After his Ph.D., he was a postdoc at the Graduate Institute of Astronomy and the Department of Physics of the National Central University in Zhongli (Taoyuan), Taiwan, for 2 years, where he worked with Drs. Wing-Huen Ip and Tai-Sone Yih. Finally, he arrived at NASA Ames in Dr. Scott Sandford’s Astrochemistry Laboratory team in Fall 2007, where has started as an NPP postdoc fellow. He has been working in the Astrochemistry Laboratory team since then, now as a BAER Institute Research Scientist since 2013.

Research Interests & Expertise

Dr. Michel Nuevo is an astrochemist with over 15 years of experience in laboratory studies of radiation processing of cosmic ice analogs. His expertise covers the preparation and performance of experiments in vacuum systems, chemical analytical techniques such as infrared (IR) and X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectroscopies, as well as gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). In particular, he has been studying the formation of molecules or prebiotic and biological interest such as amino acids, nucleobases, sugar derivatives, and amphiphiles from the UV irradiation of astrophysically relevant ice mixtures. In addition, he is interested in the evolution of the chemical and isotopic compositions of the organic residues formed during such UV irradiation experiments and their link with the composition of organics in extraterrestrial materials such as meteorites, interplanetary dust particles, and cometary particles.

Selected Publications

Materese, C.K., Nuevo, M., McDowell, B.L., Buffo, C.E., and Sandford, S.A., “The photochemistry of purine in ice analogs relevant to dense interstellar clouds”, 2018, Astrophys. J., 864, 44.

Cooper, G., Rios, A., and Nuevo, M., “Monosaccharides and their derivatives in carbonaceous meteorites: A scenario for their synthesis and onset of enantiomeric excesses”, 2018, Life, 8, 36.

Materese, C.K., Nuevo, M., and Sandford, S.A., “The formation of nucleobases from the ultraviolet photo-irradiation of purine in simple astrophysical ice analogs”, 2017, Astrobiology, 17, 761.

Bera, P. P., Nuevo, M., Materese, C. K., Lee, T. J., & Sandford, S. A. (2016). Mechanism for the formation of thymine under astrophysical conditions, and implications for the origin of life. J Chem Phys, 144, 144308 (7 pp).

Materese, C. K., Cruikshank, D. P., Sandford, S. A., Imanaka, H., & Nuevo, M. (2015). Ice chemistry on outer Solar System bodies: Electron radiolysis of N2-, CH4-, and CO-containing ices”. ApJ, 812, 150 (9 pp).

Materese C.K., Nuevo M., & Sandford S.A. (2015). N– and O-heterocycles from the irradiation of benzene and naphthalene in H2O/NH3-containing ices. ApJ, 800, 116 (8 pp).

Sandford, S. A., Bera, P. P., Lee, T. J., Materese, C. K., & Nuevo, M. (2015). “Photosynthesis and photo-stability of nucleic acids in prebiotic extraterrestrial environments”, Chapter 14 of Topics of Current Chemistry, Vol. 356, Photoinduced Phenomena in Nucleic Acids II, Barbatti, M., Borin, A.C., & Ullrich, S., eds. (Springer Verlag: Berlin), pp 123–164.

Nuevo M., Sandford S.A., Flynn G.J., & Wirick S. (2014) Mid-infrared study of stones from the Sutter’s Mill meteorite. M&PS, 49, 2017–2026.
Nuevo M., Materese C.K., & Sandford S.A. (2014) The photochemistry of pyrimidine in realistic astrophysical ices and the production of nucleobases. ApJ, 793, 125 (7 pp).
Nuevo M., Chen Y.-J., Hu W.-J., & 6 co-authors (2014) Photo-irradiation of pyrimidine in pure H2O ice with high-energy ultraviolet photons. Astrobiology, 14, 119–131.
Materese C.K., Nuevo M., Bera P.P., & 2 co-authors (2013) Thymine and other prebiotic molecules produced from the ultraviolet photo-irradiation of pyrimidine in simple astrophysical ice analogs. Astrobiology, 13, 948–962.
Nuevo M., Milam S.N., & Sandford S.A. (2012) Nucleobases and prebiotic molecules in organic residues produced from the ultraviolet photo-irradiation of pyrimidine in NH3 and H2O+NH3 ices. Astrobiology, 12, 295–314.