by Aaron R. Conklin
WiCOR, the brainchild of Eric Wilcots, the Dean of the College of Letters & Science and the Mary C. Jacoby Professor of Astronomy, was designed to connect researchers from multiple science-focused departments in the College, pairing them on research projects centered on the origins of life in the universe and synergizing their expertise. On Thursday, September 19, the Center debuted its new, renovated office and research space on the sixth floor of Sterling Hall.
Originally, WiCOR included seven departments at UW—chemistry, astronomy, botany, integrative biology, geoscience, atmospheric and oceanic sciences (AOS), and bacteriology (in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences). As the idea has evolved and picked up steam, faculty from even more departments have expressed interest in becoming involved.
“We have people from all across campus that want to join the center now,” says Susanna Widicus Weaver, WiCOR’s provisional director and the Vozza Professor of Chemistry and Astronomy. “It’s growing quite dramatically.”
Along with Widicus Weaver, Assistant Professor Zoe Todd (chemistry and astronomy), Professor Ke Zhang (astronomy), Professor Juliette Becker (astronomy), Professor Zach Adam (Geoscience), Professor Thomas Beatty (Astronomy), Professor Jessi Cisewski Kehe (Statistics), Professor Melinda Soares-Furtado (Astronomy and Physics), and Professor Hannah Zanowski (Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences) are examining how exoplanets form. This is one of WiCOR’s first research projects and will be supported by a UW–Madison Research Forward 2024 Grant. It centers on the study of hycean exoplanets, potentially habitable exoplanets in nearby galaxies that feature a liquid ocean and a hydrogen atmosphere. These exoplanets are the perfect size to be observed by the James Webb Space Telescope, launched into space two years ago.
“If these hycean exoplanets are there, what else could be in the ocean?” asks Widicus Weaver. “Can the ingredients for life be there? If there is some sort of biology happening on one of these worlds or even prebiotic chemistry, would we be able to see signs of that in the atmosphere?”
Collaboration on the initial research project is already yielding benefits.
“We thought about what science we wanted to do next, and we realized no one’s ever done it before,” says Widicus Weaver. “Everything we’re doing is brand new, and it is open-ended in terms of what we can do with the science. It’s completely opened my horizons in terms of research because I never would have been in a situation to be able to do this work before—I wouldn’t have had the expertise on my own.”