Research / Chemistry across worlds
Earth gives us the only known example of life taking hold on a planet. I study how its chemistry may have begun and what those origins can teach us about life’s possibilities elsewhere. My first few projects explore Venus’s sulfuric-acid clouds and Titan’s temporary melt pools.
TitanSaturn’s largest moon
An impact can briefly turn Titan’s icy surface into liquid water. I study what chemistry might become possible in that temporary window.
NASA / JPL / University of Arizona / CNRS / LPG. False-color composite; Selk crater is highlighted.
VenusThe clouds of our planetary neighbor
Life on Earth gives us one chemical example. This study asks whether carbon-free polymer structures could be plausible in a very different planetary setting.
Madan et al. (2025), Figure 3, cropped. QRB Discovery. CC BY 4.0.
From possibility to a testable question
Use computational chemistry to test how life’s ingredients could form on Earth and other worlds.
Build tools that make chemical calculations easier to run, connect, and compare.
Turn papers into visual explanations, interactive experiences, and talks that invite people into the questions.
The published work
Ishaan Madan & Ben K. D. Pearce · The Planetary Science Journal 7, 107
Ishaan Madan & Ben K. D. Pearce · The Planetary Science Journal 6, 284
Ishaan Madan, Shekoufeh Arabi Aliabadi, et al. · QRB Discovery 6, e23