Amber Wu is an incoming PhD student in the Department of Chemistry at Pennsylvania State University, USA. Her current research focuses on complex coacervate droplet formation as a primitive form of cellular compartmentalization. Amber received her BMSc in Medical Biophysics and Biochemistry from Western University, Canada, with a thesis on computational statistical mechanics modeling of polyelectrolyte interactions in coacervate droplets using molecular dynamics methods, completed under the supervision of Dr. Styliani Consta. 

Amber is interested in studying the origins of life and life in extreme environments. She received the Origins of Life Summer Undergraduate Research Prize Award from Harvard University, MA, and researched the photophysical properties of prebiotic molecules under the mentorship of Prof. Dimitar Sasselov. She also worked as a research student under Dr. Buzz Baum at MRC-LMB in Cambridge, UK, where she investigated the effects of temperature shock on archaeal cell morphology using immunofluorescence and live cell imaging.

She is excited to join her first research cruise with a diverse group of scientists and will assist Dr. Lauren Seyler in preparing and preserving samples for further analysis.

Cruises: