Prebiotic Photochemistry

Franz Saija (1969) is currently a research scientist at the Institute for Chemical and Physical Processes of the Italian National Research Council. He received his PhD degree in Physics at the University of Messina in 1996. He did postodoctoral research with Prof. Jean-Paul Ryckaert (ULB-Bruxelles) and then returned to Italy where won a competition as a researcher at the Institute of Spectroscopic Techniques in 2000. His research is oriented toward the investigation of systems of soft condensed matter using theoretical approaches, numerical simulation methods and experimental techniques (light and neutron spectroscopy). Recently, his scientific interests have shifted towards the computational study of prebiotic chemistry processes. He is co-author of over 120 scientific articles and of 5 book chapters. Giuseppe Cassone (1987) is currently tenure Researcher at the Institute for Chemical and Physical Processes of the Italian National Research Council. He received his PhD diploma in 2016 in Physics and Chemistry of Materials at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie – Sorbonne (Paris, France) under the supervision of Prof. A. Marco Saitta and performed postdoctoral researches at the Institute of Biophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences (Brno, Czechia) with Prof. Jiri Sponer until 2019. He got the Seal of Excellence by the European Commission for a Marie-Curie Individual Fellowhip proposal. He co-authored over 35 scientific articles and 2 book chapters.

The Light of Photophysics and Photochemistry;

Extraterrestrial Photochemistry: Principles and Applications;

Gas-phase Prebiotic Chemistry Driven by Ultraviolet Photolysis of Simple Molecules;

Unveiling Early Earth Photochemistry Through Experimental Simulations of Planetary Atmospheres;

Rethinking UV-induced Prebiotic Selection of Biomolecules;

The Role of Photochemistry in the Prebiotic Model of Formamide;

Nucleobases as Molecular Fossils of Prebiotic Photochemistry: Excited-state Dynamics of C2 and C6 Substituted Purines;

Comets, Do They Have a Role in Prebiotic Photochemistry?;

Life Chooses Homochirality: The Role of Cosmic Dust in Chiral Selection;

Interstellar Complex Organic Molecules: A Step Toward Biomolecule Building Blocks in the Skies;

The Buried Chemical Wealth of Ices in Protoplanetary Discs;

Consequences of Heavy Bombardment on Prebiotic Synthesis;

The Birth and Fate of Glycine: From the Interstellar Medium to Primitive Earth;

Reconciling the Genetics-first and Metabolism-first Scenarios of the Origin of Life: Cyclic GMP as the Seed of Life;