Michael Wong recognized for early career excellence in origins research

Washington, DC—International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life has honored Carnegie astrobiologist Michael Wong with its prestigious Stanley L. Miller Award for Early Career Research. 

This prize recognizes young scientists for outstanding contributions in astrobiology and origins of life science via experimental or theoretical research achieved during graduate school or a postdoctoral fellowship. 

Wong, a current research scientist and former postdoctoral fellow at Carnegie’s Earth and Planets Laboratory studies planetary atmospheres, habitability, biosignatures, and the emergence of life. 

His recent papers have advanced the idea of a new law of nature, proposing that natural selection and evolution drive an increase in functional information in complex systems. This concept was further developed in a popular science book, Time’s Second Arrow, he co-authored with Carnegie Staff Scientist Robert Hazen earlier this year.

Wong currently co-leads a NASA-funded effort to develop “multi-messenger” biosignature detection techniques via spaceflight-ready chemical analyses and state-of-the-art machine learning. His work has demonstrated how a machine learning–based approach to biosignature detection has the potential to transform both the search for life in the universe and our understanding of life’s evolution on Earth.  

The award is named after legendary the so-called “father of prebiotic chemistry,” Stanley L. Miller, who demonstrated the synthesis of organic biomolecules in a laboratory setting designed to mimic early Earth. Over the ensuing years, many Carnegie researchers have built on the foundation of his groundbreaking work. 

“Congratulations to Mike on this well-deserved recognition,” said EPL Director Michael Walter. “Carnegie has been a leader in the field of astrobiology since its inception and Mike is poised to carry that tradition forward with his bold, interdisciplinary approach.”