![](https://pi.tedcdn.com/r/pe.tedcdn.com/images/ted/bb197d5440578877381d13ddf3ab0edb8e2f8ce2_254x191.jpg?w=255)
Why you should listen
Karin Öberg is an investigator with the Simons Collaboration on the Origins of Life (SCOL). In her research, she observes the disks, gas and dust around young stars and conducts laboratory astrochemistry experiments to simulate the extreme environments in space.
Öberg received her B.S. in chemistry from Caltech in 2005 and her PhD in astronomy from Leiden University in 2009. She completed her postdoctoral work at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics as a NASA Hubble Fellow and joined the Harvard Astronomy faculty in 2013, where she is a professor today. Her research on the chemistry of planet formation has been recognized with a Sloan Fellowship, a Packard Fellowship and the Newton Lacy Pierce Award from the American Astronomical Society.