Sean McMahon

Reader

Biography

Background

2023- Reader, University of Edinburgh, UK
2019-2023 Chancellor's Fellow, University of Edinburgh, UK
2019, Michaelmas   Visiting Fellow, Institute of Advanced Study, Durham University, UK
2017-2019   Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship, University of Edinburgh, UK
2014-2017   Postdoctoral Associate, Briggs Lab, Yale University, USA
2010-2014   PhD Geology, University of Aberdeen, UK
2013, Summer   Planetary Biology Intern, NASA Ames Research Center, USA
2006-2010 MEarthSci, St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford, UK

Main interests

  • Biosignatures in astrobiology and their abiotic mimics (how do we distinguish the signal of life from the abiotic baseline?)
  • Fossilization processes on Earth and Mars
  • Life in subsurface habitats
  • Geomicrobiology and microbial palaeontology

Qualifications

PhD Geology

MEarthSci Earth Sciences

BA Philosophy

PgCert Academic Practice (Higher Education)

Responsibilities & affiliations

Co-director, UK Centre for Astrobiology

Programme Director, MSc Astrobiology & Planetary Sciences

Elected Councillor, European Astrobiology Network Association

Associate Editor, International Journal of Astrobiology

Royal Astronomical Society, Fellow (FRAS)

Geological Society and London, Fellow (FGS)

Palaeontological Association, Member

Astrobiology Society of Britain, Member

Undergraduate teaching

PGPH11108 Astrobiology Theory (CO)

PGPH11107 Astrobiology Methods (CO)

PHYS08051 Astrobiology

EASC10128 Planetary Science

 

Postgraduate teaching

Programme Director, MSc Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Areas of interest for supervision

I supervise Senior Honours Projects (Physics), MPhys projects (Physics, occasionally other programmes), MSc dissertations (Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences) , MScR theses (Geobiology and Palaeontology) and PhDs (Physics, Geosciences). I occasionally supervise or co-supervise students in other Schools.

Research summary

My group conducts research at the interface of palaeobiology and astrobiology at the UK Centre for Astrobiology, University of Edinburgh. Through a combination of field, analytical, and experimental approaches, we aim to understand how traces of life can survive for billions of years on Earth, Mars, and beyond, and how these ancient traces can be recognised and interrogated to reveal the secrets of deep life, deep time, and deep space. Current and recent research in the group has been funded by the Royal Society, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Natural Environment Research Council, the Human Frontiers Science Program, and the Leverhulme Trust, among other sources.

Current projects address:

  • Mars: The search for fossil biosignatures and the nature of the abiotic baseline
  • Exoplanets: The search for reflectance biosignatures and the nature of the abiotic baseline
  • Earth: The nature of the bacterial fossil record, including morphological and (in situ) molecular preservation

Affiliated research centres

Current project grants

The Hidden Majority: Reading and Writing the Bacterial Fossil Record
McMahon, Sean (Principal Investigator)
Ngwenya, Bryne (Co-investigator)
Natural Environment Research Council: £608,877.00

Unambiguous Biosignatures for Life Detection
PI: Cleaves, Henderson (Howard University - Washington - USA)
Co-I: Van Zuilen, Mark (Naturalis, Leiden, NL)
Co-I: McMahon, Sean (University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK)
Human Frontier Science Program ($1.2 million USD)

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