NASA Sagan Fellow at the University of Chicago
jbergner [at] uchicago.edu
I am currently a postdoc in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago. Starting January 2023, I will be joining UC Berkeley as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry. My research explores the chemistry of volatile molecules in protostars and protoplanetary disks, the evolutionary progenitors of planetary systems. Ultimately, we aim to characterize the chemical environment which regulates the formation, composition, and potential habitability of planetesimals and planets. To tackle this complex problem I use a variety of approaches: telescope observations of protostars and protoplanetary disks, laboratory experiments of astrophysical ice analogs, and simulations of protoplanetary disk chemistry. Read more about my research here!
The IRAM 30m radio telescope (Pico Veleta, Spain)
An ice chemistry chamber mimics the low temperatures & pressures of interstellar space
Simulation of a dust grain diffusing into different environments of a protoplanetary disk