Prof. Dr. Jan-Peter Duda
Research interests
I am a geobiologist and deeply fascinated by the long, intertwined history of life and Earth. Striving to understand how our modern world came into being, I explore how organisms and environment have interacted ever since life began billions of years ago. My research on microbial processes on the primordial Earth contributes directly to understanding the origin of life on our planet and informs the search for habitable worlds and life elsewhere in the universe (astrobiology).
For more information about my research, please see Duda Lab webpage.
Professional Career
2022 – today Full Professor (W3) of Geobiology & Head of the Department of Geobiology, University of Göttingen
2021 – 2022 Juniorprofessor (W1) of Sedimentology & Organic Geochemistry, University of Tübingen
2020 – today DFG Emmy-Noether Research Group Leader University of Tübingen
2018 – 2019 Visiting Scholar University of California Riverside
2014 – 2020 Assistant Professor, Department of Geobiology, University of Göttingen
2011 Doctoral Student, NIGPAS, Chinese Academy of Sciences
2010 – 2014 Dr rer. nat., University of Göttingen, Germany; with “summa cum laude”
2007 – 2010 MSc Geosciences, University of Bremen
2004 – 2007 BSc Geosciences, University of Bremen
Academic Honors
2023 Visiting Professor Northwest University Xi’an, PR China
2020 DFG Emmy-Noether Fellowship (DU 1450/7-1)
2018 DFG Research Fellowship (DU 1450/4-1)
2014 Best Oral Presentation Award, 3rd International Conference of Geobiology, Wuhan, PR China
2013 Young Scientist Award, Paläontologische Gesellschaft & Palaeontological Society China
2011 DAAD PhD fellowship
Professional service
Functions in Scientific Societies & Committees (examples)
- Vice president, Paläontologische Gesellschaft (PalGes) (since 2024)
- Panel member, Independent Research Fund Denmark (DFF) (since 2024)
- Teaching faculty member, International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) for Solar System Science Göttingen (since 2024)
- Overseas Academic Expert 111 Center at Northwest University Xi’an, China (since 2023)
- Voting member, Subcommission on Precryogenian Stratigraphy, International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) (since 2022)
- Guest editor PalZ (Paläontologische Zeitschrift) (2021)
- Section editor PalZ (Paläontologische Zeitschrift) (since 2016)
- Spokesman, Geobiology section, Paläontologische Gesellschaft (PalGes) (since 2016)
- Corresponding member, Terminal Ediacaran Stage Working Group, Subcomission on Ediacaran Stratigraphy, International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) (since 2015)
- Advisory board member, Paläontologische Gesellschaft (PalGes) (2015–2024)
- Guest editor International Journal of Astrobiology (2015)
- Spokesman, Working Group “Origin of Life”, Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Lower Saxony (since 2014)
Reviewer scientific journals & books, e.g. Astrobiology (Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.), Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France (BSGF), Cambridge Elements (Cambridge University Press), Carbonates and Evaporites (Springer), Geobiology (Wiley), International Journal of Earth Sciences (IJES, Springer), Marine and Petroleum Geology (Elsevier), Nature (Nature Research), Newsletters on Stratigraphy (Schweizerbart), Organic Geochemistry (Elsevier), PalZ (Paläontologische Zeitschrift) (Springer)
Reviewer scientific institutions & foundations, e.g. Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Independent Research Fund Denmark (DFF); German Research Foundation (DFG), Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowships
Research Funding (principal investigator)
2022 DFG Project (DU 1450/8-1): “Linking Redox-Cycling to Hydrogeology: Sedimentological
Controls on the Capacity of Aquifers to Reduce Nitrate and other Dissolved Electron
Acceptors” (part of DFG-FWF project within Weave initiative)
2020 DFG Emmy-Noether Project (DU 1450/7-1): “Reaching for life in the distant past – deciphering
the geobiology of modern and ancient hydrothermal sulfides”
2018 DFG Project (DU 1450/3-2): “Kerogen in Archean rocks: Biotic vs abiotic signatures – Pt. II”
(within DFG SPP 1833 "Building a Habitable Earth")
2017 DFG Project (DU 1450/5-1): “Paleoecology vs taphonomy: Unraveling the molecular fossil
record of the Mesoproterozoic Lakhanda Lagerstätte (SE Siberia, Russia)”
2015 DFG Project (DU 1450/3-1): “Kerogen in Archean rocks: Biotic vs abiotic signatures” (within
DFG SPP 1833 "Building a Habitable Earth")
Publications (Peer Reviewed Only)