Usha Lingappa, Caltech (PhD ’21) geobiology (photo courtesy CALTECH)
CaltechLive!, a Caltech Public Programming event that serves as a gateway to world-class scientists, artists, and speakers, will feature Usha Lingappa, a recent PhD in Geobiology graduate, on Friday, March 25, in the virtual Caltech Science Journeys series.
She will be discussing “The Origin of Photosynthesis: A Window into the Intricate Relationship Between Life and the World Around It.” The event begins at 11 a.m.
The lecture covers how oxygenic photosynthesis dramatically transformed the face of the planet and redirected the course of life’s evolution.
Using the different scientific perspectives offered by geology, biology, and chemistry, scientists pieced together different parts of the story about this crucial turning point in the history of life on Earth, deciphering the clues preserved in sedimentary rocks to learn about past environments and investigating the workings of modern microbes to learn about their ancient ancestors.
By approaching this problem from many different perspectives, scientists were able to discover unexpected and important connections that would not have been accessible from one perspective alone.
Usha Lingappa grew up in San Francisco and wanted to be an artist. She attended Hampshire College planning to study art. Instead, she got distracted by science.
After finishing college, she spent several years hunting aliens and viruses, doing astrobiology research at NASA and antiviral research at a biotech company, before pursuing her PhD at Caltech. Her research focused on the origin of photosynthesis.
In addition to her science work, Lingappa continues to maintain an art practice. She likes the way her art and her science influence each other, and both inform how she understands the world around her.
To register for Friday’s virtual lecture, visit https://events.caltech.edu/
For more information, call (626) 395-4652 or email events@caltech.edu.
