About
Vlada Stamenkovic is a physicist and planetary scientist who studies how planets evolve as a function of time.
He is particularly interested in how water and gases flow within planets to enable the emergence and evolution of life.
On the theoretical side, Stamenkovic models how planetary interiors heat and cool over time, how crusts deform and how the volatiles and nutrients needed for life (such as water, oxygen, methane, and hydrogen amongst others) are being formed, transported and stored inside these crusts.
Stamenkovic is also developing the technologies needed to search for subsurface water—on the Earth as well as on Mars. He believes that understanding the evolution of the subsurface of the Earth is the missing piece needed to understand how life emerged here and that the subsurface of other planetary objects, especially Mars, is key for finding signs of life beyond Earth.
Awards
- Simons Foundation’s Collaboration on the Origin of Life Fellowship.
- Swiss National Science Foundation Advanced Researcher Fellowship.
- Swiss National Science Foundation Prospective Researcher Fellowship.
- Nobel Laureate Symposium Award by German Aerospace Center.
- European Space Agency & German Space Agency Doctoral Fellowship.
Relevant Publications
- Stamenković, V., et al., 2019. The next frontier in planetary and human exploration, Nature Astronomy, Volume 3, Pages 116–120. Find on: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-018-0676-9
- Stamenković, V., Lewis, W., Mischna, M., Fischer, W., 2018. O2 solubility in Martian near-surface brines and implications for aerobic life. Nature Geoscience, Volume 11, Pages 905–909, Cover page of the Dec 2018 Edition. Find on: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-018-0243-0
- Demory, B. et al. (incl. Stamenković, V.), 2016. A map of the large day–night temperature gradient of a super-Earth exoplanet. Nature 532, 207-209. Find on: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v532/n7598/abs/nature17169.html
- Stamenković, V., Noack, L., Breuer, D., Spohn, T., 2012. The influence of pressure-dependent viscosity on the thermal evolution of super-Earths. The Astrophysical Journal, 748, 41-63. Find on: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0004-637X/748/1/41
- Stamenković, V., Keller, G., Nesic, D., Cogoli, A., Grogan, S.P., 2010. Neocartilage formation in 1 g, simulated, and microgravity environments: implications for tissue engineering. Tissue Engineering: part A, 16 (5), 1729-1736. Find on: http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/ten.tea.2008.0624
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