February 26, 2004
Charles C. Dyer, Department of Physical and
Environmental Sciences University of Toronto
at Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto,
Ontario, M1C 1A4, Canada.
Dear Committee Chair:
In response to your recent advertisement on the University of Toronto Academic Employment
Opportunities page, I am writing to confirm my interest in the Assistant/Assoc/Full Professor in
Physical and Environmental Sciences, UTSC tenure track faculty position outlined in the job
posting. From what I have learned about your department, I believe that my scientific
background and academic ambitions will complement your department’s focus and leadership in
both solar and extrasolar planetary research and student training extremely well.
I am presently a postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) where I am exploring a range of research topics. At Caltech I
am working with Prof. Yuk Yung where my main emphasis is on solar system and planetary
atmosphere evolution, viz., Jovian and extrasolar atmospheric research and the evolution of 13C
in the Martian atmosphere. As an astrobiologist with the Virtual Planet Laboratory (VPL) at
JPL, I work with Dr. Vikki Meadows, Dr. David Crisp, Dr. Mark Richardson and Prof. Jim
Kasting in a variety of capacities. My primary research is the building of a hydrodynamic escape
model with application to the evolution of the early Earth’s biosphere, early Venus and Martian
atmospheres, and Extrasolar Giant Planets (EGP’s). Additionally, I have assembled a cloud
model as part of a climate model (again with application to the Early Earth, Venus and Mars
atmospheres) as well as co-ordinating the large task of assembling and integrating the core
component modules for the VPL with the end goal of investigating planetary habitability and life
detection.
While my graduate courses at York University provided a rigorous background for past and
current research, it was working with the Voyager UVS team during the Voyager 2 flyby of
Neptune that I was first able to engage in cutting edge scientific research. Employing
photochemical and radiative transfer models for aeronomical computational simulations of
planetary atmospheres, I was able to better quantify earlier analyses and make new predictions
regarding planetary atmospheric emissions. This has continued with my investigations of other
planets by my involvement with other research groups to model Voyager data, Galileo data, as
well as being a co-investigator on Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and Far Ultraviolet
Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) missions and research projects. In particular, being a member of
the FUSE team during the tenure of my Bourse Postdoctorale Chateaubriand award at the Institut
d’Astrophysique de Paris before I came to Caltech/JPL was stimulating and productive. The
numerous resulting publications over time demonstrate my ability to work both independently
and in a scientific team setting to get quality results.
As a graduate student I had teaching assistantships that included general Earth science,
mathematics, physics, and numerical modelling. I also have had the opportunity to contribute
lectures in atmospheric dynamics, radiative transfer and physics to graduate courses in
atmospheric science while at York University. Additionally, I have mentored new graduate
students as a senior graduate student and more recently as a postdoctoral scholar. I consider
Education and Public Outreach to be a privilege and have given several astrobiology lectures to
local schools and amateur astronomy clubs while a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech/JPL.
I also have experience working in the private sector that has been obtained running my own
computer consulting company for several years. While private sector experience may seem
somewhat orthogonal to academic pursuits, I gained valuable corporate experience with the
product development cycle “business case to roll out” that is not dissimilar to the academic
“proposal to publication” cycle. I demonstrated a strong track record of performing high quality
work in a timely fashion, requiring the ability to work well both independently and as a member
of a team environment, skills which have served me well in my academic career to date.
I intend to pursue my present research as described in the attached “Research Interests”
document, complimented by a teaching program that balances the need to develop in students
a sound theoretical and practical foundation of the interdisciplinary subjects that comprise the
wide field of astrobiology, an appreciation of the importance of quantitative assessment, and an
understanding of problems of interest to the broader planetary science and astrobiological
community.
With a strong background in planetary science and astrobiology and a demonstrated excellence in
research and teaching, I feel that I am the ideal candidate for this position. I have enclosed a copy
of my curriculum vitae, a statement of research interests, and the names and contact details of
five referees from whom I have requested letters of recommendation.
Sincerely,
Christopher Parkinson