Sassenroth Cynthia Victoria

Sassenroth Cynthia

cynthia.sassenroth@phd.unipi.it

I am an interdisciplinary geoscientist and graduated in polar and marine science at Saint Petersburg State University (Russia) and Hamburg University (Germany). During my previous studies I was working on projects related to climate change in the polar regions, palaeoceanography, polar (marine-) ecology, glaciology, and permafrost. My work at the German Aerospace Center and passion for space and exploration let me pursue my career in the field of planetary science.
Despite geographically very distant, Mars’ environments do show some significant similarities to the most extreme polar regions of Earth. Martian analogue studies are a powerful approach to understand environmental processes on Mars, where only limited ground truthing data is available. Cryopegs and brines resemble an exciting habitat for (extraterrestrial-) polyextremophile microorganisms, as water remains liquid even at temperatures well below zero. But despite their large potential for hosting life, their formation mechanisms, spatial distribution, and physio-chemical characteristics are not well understood. Within the framework of my PhD thesis, I aim to contribute to the site-specific analysis, characterisation and understanding of these extreme environments.
If you are further interested in my research activities, you can find a comprehensive overview of my past and current research projects under the following link: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Cynthia_Sassenroth

RESEARCH INTEREST
  • Martian habitability
  • Permafrost
  • Cryopegs and brines
  • Environmental analysis
  • Remote sensing

Research project: Characteristics of terrestrial groundice, cryopegs and brines in permafrost environments and their implications for martian habitability.

Supervisors:

Prof. Dr. Carlo Baroni (University of Pisa, Italy)

Ernst Hauber (Institute of Planetary Science, German Aerospace Center (DLR))


Cynthia Victoria Sassenroth

Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra
Università di Pisa
Via Santa Maria 53
56126 Pisa
Italia