David Madrigal-Trejo
PhD student in Geobiology
Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (MIT-EAPS)
Research Interests
I’m a geoscientist specializing in the geochemical origins of life and the co-evolution of life and Earth’s surface environments. I explore questions such as: Can we reconstruct the environmental conditions that led to the emergence of cells? What processes were involved in the transition from geochemistry to biogeochemistry? How did microbes thrive in the earliest ecosystems?, and ultimately, What is life?
My research is highly interdisciplinary, bridging the fields of chemistry, biology, and geology through experimental, computational, and field-based methods.
I’m always excited to talk about science! Feel free to reach out to discuss research, share ideas, or ask questions.
Email: davidmadrigal@mit.edu
Office: Room 4-445, Building 4, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Bio
I come from Mexico City where I earned my B.S. degree in Earth Sciences at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). This program is one of the few in Mexico that offers a specialization in Planetary Sciences, where I learned about Astrobiology and became passionate about the emergence of life. Before graduate school, I worked at the Chemical Evolution Laboratory (Institute of Nuclear Sciences, UNAM) and the Molecular and Experimental Evolution Laboratory (Insitute of Ecology, UNAM) where I did research on Prebiotic Chemistry and Microbial Ecology. After realizing how little we know about the early Earth and how this is crucial to better constrain prebiotic chemistry experiments, I decided to pursue a PhD in Geobiology to learn about the Archean.
Currently I’m a third-year graduate student at the Bosak Lab (MIT-EAPS), where I spend most of the time doing experimental work on biosignatures. I also actively work at the Drabon group (Harvard University) where I study Archean rocks to understand early sedimentary environments and biological processes.