Zita Martins

Zita Martins, OSE, is a Portuguese astrobiologist and Royal Society research fellow.^[1] Her research explores how life may have begun on Earth by looking for organic molecules in meteorite samples.^[2][3] Zita Martins was appointed Oficial da Ordem Militar de Sant'Iago da Espada (OSE, Officer of the Order of Saint James of the Sword) by the President of Portugal for exceptional and outstanding merits in science.^[4]

Early Life and Education

As a child, Dr Martins studied classical ballet from the age of four and was encourage by her teacher to progress to the National Ballet School in Portugal, which would have put her on track to become a professional dancer. Instead, at the age of 15, she decided she wanted to pursue science, gave up ballet and taught herself Russian.

At secondary school, she filled in a careers test, which advised her strengths were in science and art, which Dr Martins says wasn't very helpful.

As an undergraduate studying chemistry, Dr Martins was unsure how to direct her education towards a career in space science. She says, "I emailed NASA and asked them what I should do. They told me to do an internship in the Netherlands. I did an internship there, and did a really cool project analyzing samples from space (i.e. meteorites). I thought: ‘this is cool; I want to do this for the rest of my life’. "

While completing her PhD, she gave a talk which was led to an invitation to be an Invited Scientist at NASA.^[5]

Research

In 2013, Dr Martins, working with colleagues from the University of Kent shot steel projectiles at ice samples, which simulated the composition of comets to find out if their impact is responsible for the production of complex organic molecules. The experiment found that the impact-shock of a comet produces a number of amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins. This has implications for the origin of life on Earth but also potentially in the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn.^[6]

Dr Martins is Co-Investigator of two European Space Agency missions, OREOcube and EXOcube, which will be installed on the International Space Station in the future.^[7]

Science Communication

Committed to inspiring the next generation of young people to take an interest in science, Dr Martins has an active involvement with the international media.^[8] She is a BBC Expert Women Scientist.^{[9] [10]}

References

External links

• Zita Martins on Twitter