Assistant Research Scientist Chao He and Postdoctoral Fellow Viranga Perera have been awarded

the Dean’s Postdoctoral Science Teaching Fellowship for the Fall of 2019. Candidates for the Fellowship

propose an undergraduate course, for which they then teach two sections. Dr. He’s course “Astrobiology:

The chemical evolution of life on earth and beyond” will ask students to grapple with what kinds

of life might exist beyond our earth, and how we would be able to detect them.

Dr. Perera’s course “Our Moon: From imagination to exploration” invites students from a range

of backgrounds to explore the roles that disciplines as disparate as literature, art, engineering and

geology played in motivating and accomplishing the exploration of the moon and to work on a 

project related to lunar exploration.  The department congratulates Drs. He and Perera for

winning this fellowship and invites interested students to explore these fascinating areas with them.