Zach Adam recently joined LPL as an Associate Staff Scientist with a focus on the origins of life, the origins of eukaryotes, and the possible distribution of complex life in our universe. He came to LPL after a postdoc fellowship through the Simons Collaboration on the Origins of Life, where he and his colleagues conducted gamma ray irradiation experiments on aqueous mixtures of simple carbon compounds. Together they discovered new, efficient pathways for the production each of the precursors predicted for RNA World scenarios. Before this assignment, he was a graduate student at Montana State University, where he discovered two new sources of microfossils in the rocks of the Belt Supergroup. These microfossils included beautifully preserved specimens of some of the oldest eukaryotes known from the fossil record. And before this he was a launch vehicle inspector for the federal government, where he got the chance to serve on the licensing teams for the SpaceX Falcon 1, Falcon 9 and Dragon and Sea Launch Zenit-3SL programs.

Outside of work, Zach loves playing games with his wife and baby son, running in all kinds of weather, and fixing broken machines. He is moved by a strong (and perhaps naive) belief that the cultivation of knowledge follows universal patterns.