Cosmochemistry as a field of science was strongly championed and pioneered by the Nobel laureate and former UCSD faculty member H. C. Urey after World War II. In the early days it dealt with the chemical composition of meteorites and our sun and the chemical evolution and composition of planets. Over the years it has evolved into a truly interdisciplinary field including areas such as chemistry, mineralogy and petrology, biology, subsets of physics including dynamic processes ranging from planetary systems formation to cratering dynamics, nuclear astrophysics, astronomy, plasma physics and so forth. UCSD has long been a center of cosmochemistry due to the tremendous scientific influence of H. C. Urey during the decades following the founding of this campus and lunar sample returns. Cosmochemistry is a very lively field today, gaining rapidly not only because of the ever evolving analytical capabilities, in many instances triggered by research in this field, but also due to the ever increasing amount of data returned by robotic space missions. With the advent of new sample return missions enthusiasm for this field of science is swiftly growing all over the world. The steadily increasing attendance at international conferences clearly testifies to this fact.

Cosmochemistry research in GRD at SIO:

Prof. G.Arrhenius aims at reconstructing possible pathways toward the emergence of molecular bioinformation and life by model experiments, which are guided by geophysical and geochemical constraints. He is also concerned with identifying the earliest traces of life left in the sedimentary records on Earth and possibly on Mars.

The research by Prof. J.Bada, the Director of the NASA sponsored NSCORT Center in La Jolla, involves evaluation of the possible sources, the stability and the composition of the organic material on the primitive Earth, exogenous delivery of amino acids and fullerenes associated with impact deposits, and amino acid racemization. He is also interested in the DNA survival under various geochemical conditions and in the development of the Mars Organic Detector.

The primary thrust of Prof. D. Lal's work is in the fields of cosmic ray physics, nuclear physics, earth sciences and solar system physics. He explores different ways in which natural processes can be utilized with an advantage to understand planetary physical and chemical processes and their rate constants. His work has emphasized studies of cosmic ray produced radioisotopes. nuclear tracks and radioactivity in diverse terrestrial environments, moon, meteorites, atmosphere, lakes, polar ice caps, oceans and sediments; in and terrestrial samples.

Prof. Günter Lugmair's research focuses on the origin and evolution of the solar system, history, evolution and composition of the Earth and cause of mass extinction events through isotopic studies, including the search for decay products of extinct radionuclides, of extraterrestrial and geological materials.