SelectedWorks - Michael Callahan

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Selected Works of Michael Callahan

Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry

Joining Boise State University in 2015, Dr. Michael Callahan is an Assistant Professor for the Department of Chemistry. He received a Ph.D. in Physical/Analytical Chemistry from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a B.S. in Chemistry with a minor in Mathematics from the University of Rhode Island. Dr. Callahan’s professional experience includes a post as a Research Physical Scientist for the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in which he focused his research on the study of organic matter in carbonaceous meteorites (with an emphasis on nitrogen heterocyclic compounds) to understand the cosmochemistry of asteroids and investigate how meteoric organic compounds could have played a role in the origin of life.

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About Michael Callahan

Joining Boise State University in 2015, Dr. Michael Callahan is an Assistant Professor for the Department of Chemistry. He received a Ph.D. in Physical/Analytical Chemistry from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a B.S. in Chemistry with a minor in Mathematics from the University of Rhode Island. Dr. Callahan’s professional experience includes a post as a Research Physical Scientist for the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in which he focused his research on the study of organic matter in carbonaceous meteorites (with an emphasis on nitrogen heterocyclic compounds) to understand the cosmochemistry of asteroids and investigate how meteoric organic compounds could have played a role in the origin of life.

2015 - Present	Assistant Professor, Boise State University
Institution Organization Position Type Position Title Time Period to Options Current Position Affiliate my profile with this Institution

Chemistry

Physical Chemistry and Analytical Chemistry

2018 - Present	NASA Grant to Study Organic Material Found on Asteriods
	NASA Laboratory Analysis of Returned Samples (LARS) Program
	$446,413
2020 - 2022	Investigation of how water in asteroids played a role in the organic composition found in extraterrestrial meteorite samples
	NASA Emerging Worlds Program
	Role: Principal Investigator
	Colleague(s): Karen Smith (Co-Principal Investigator)
	$344,861

2014 - NASA Solar System Exploration Division Peer Award
2013 - Robert H. Goddard Exceptional Achievement Award in Outreach, Team Award
2012 - NASA Early Career Achievement Medal
2012 - "On-The-Spot" NASA GSFC Award
2011 - Robert H. Goddard Exceptional Achievement Award in Science

Articles (13)

Addressing the Miller Paradox and the Prebiotic Synthesis of Nucleobases (Michael P. Callahan and H. James Cleaves) ACS Earth and Space Chemistry (2023)

In origins of life research, there is a general consensus that the prebiotic syntheses of nucleobases and sugars in the same location are problematic because reactions containing both hydrogen cyanide and formaldehyde react to produce ...

Cyanide Abundance and Soluble Organic Composition in Highly Aqueously Altered CM Chondrites (Rachel A. Reichow, Patrick K. Schwartz, Karen E. Smith, et al.) ACS Earth and Space Chemistry (2023)

Spectroscopic measurements of regolith collected from asteroid Bennu identified magnesium-rich phyllosilicates indicative of high degrees of aqueous alteration, which resemble the most aqueously altered carbonaceous chondrites. Here we report on the complex distribution of soluble ...

A Modular Strategy for Expanding Electron-Sink Capacity in Noncanonical Cluster Assemblies (Yume Mai, Alexandria K. Balzen, Rebecca K. Torren, et al.) Inorganic Chemistry (2021)

A modular synthetic strategy is described whereby organometallic complexes exhibiting considerable electron-sink capacity may be assembled by using only a few simple molecular components. The Fe2(PPh2)2(CO)5 fragment was selected as a common electroactive component and ...

Radiolysis of Solid-State Nitrogen Heterocycles Provides Clues to Their Abundance in the Early Solar System (Phillip G. Hammer, Ruiqin Yi, Isao Yoda, et al.) International Journal of Astrobiology (2019)

We studied the radiolysis of a wide variety of N-heterocycles, including many of biological importance, and find that the majority are remarkably stable in the solid-state when subjected to large doses of ionizing gamma radiation ...

Nitrogen Heterocycles Form Peptide Nucleic Acid Precursors in Complex Prebiotic Mixtures (Laura E. Rodriguez, Christopher H. House, Karen E. Smith, et al.) Scientific Reports (2019)

The ability to store information is believed to have been crucial for the origin and evolution of life; however, little is known about the genetic polymers relevant to abiogenesis. Nitrogen heterocycles (N-heterocycles) are plausible components ...

Organometallic Compounds as Carriers of Extraterrestrial Cyanide in Primitive Meteorites (Karen E. Smith, Christopher H. House, Ricardo D. Arevalo, et al.) Nature Communications (2019)

Extraterrestrial delivery of cyanide may have been crucial for the origin of life on Earth since cyanide is involved in the abiotic synthesis of numerous organic compounds found in extant life; however, little is known ...

A Natural Algal Polyculture Outperforms an Assembled Polyculture in Wastewater-Based Open Pond Biofuel Production (Patrick K. Thomas, Gary P. Dunn, Alison R. Good, et al.) Algal Research (2019)

Use of diverse algal polycultures could enhance the viability of mass algal cultivation by increasing the productivity and stability of production. However, there are multiple approaches for selecting productive polycultures, ranging from a synthetic ecology ...

OSIRIS-REx Contamination Control Strategy and Implementation (M. P. Callahan) Space Science Reviews (2018)

OSIRIS-REx will return pristine samples of carbonaceous asteroid Bennu. This article describes how pristine was defined based on expectations of Bennu and on a realistic understanding of what is achievable with a constrained schedule and ...

Early Neolithic Wine of Georgia in the South Caucasus (Michael P. Callahan and Karen E. Smith) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (2017)

Chemical analyses of ancient organic compounds absorbed into the pottery fabrics from sites in Georgia in the South Caucasus region, dating to the early Neolithic period (ca. 6,000–5,000 BC), provide the earliest biomolecular archaeological evidence ...

Spontaneous Oligomerization of Nucleotide Alternatives in Aqueous Solutions (Karen E. Smith, Christopher H. House, Jason P. Dworkin, et al.) Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres (2017)

On early Earth, a primitive polymer that could spontaneously form from likely available precursors may have preceded both RNA and DNA as the first genetic material. Here, we report that heated aqueous solutions containing 5-hydroxymethyluracil ...

The Origin of Amino Acids in Lunar Regolith Samples (Jamie E. Elsila, Michael P. Callahan, Jason P. Dworkin, et al.) Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (2016)

We analyzed the amino acid content of seven lunar regolith samples returned by the Apollo 16 and Apollo 17 missions and stored under NASA curation since collection using ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection and ...

Investigation of Pyridine Carboxylic Acids in CM2 Carbonaceous Chondrites: Potential Precursor Molecules for Ancient Coenzymes (Karen E. Smith, Michael P. Callahan, Perry A. Gerakines, et al.) Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (2014)

The distribution and abundances of pyridine carboxylic acids (including nicotinic acid) in eight CM2 carbonaceous chondrites (ALH 85013, DOM 03183, DOM 08003, EET 96016, LAP 02333, LAP 02336, LEW 85311, and WIS 91600) were investigated ...

Amino Acid Analysis in Micrograms of Meteorite Sample by Nanoliquid Chromatography–High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry (Michael P. Callahan, Mildred G. Martin, Aaron S. Burton, et al.) Journal of Chromatography A (2014)

Amino acids and their enantiomers in a 360 microgram sample of Murchison meteorite were unambiguously identified and quantified using chemical derivatization and nanoliquid chromatography coupled to nanoelectrospray ionization high resolution orbitrap mass spectrometry techniques. The ...

Deciphering 4-Billion Year Old Meteorite Chemistry Through Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (Michael P. Callahan) 2014 Eastern Analytical Symposium and Exposition (2014)

Investigation of Extraterrestrial Organics via DART Mass Spectrometry (Michael Callahan) The DART Forum: American Society for Mass Spectrometry Annual Conference (2014)

Meteorites (Mike Callahan) Idaho Museum of Mining and Geology (2016)

He will speak about the chemistry that took place during formation of the solar system.

Trace Analysis of Wine from 6000 BC (Kim Farrar, Patrick E. McGovern and Michael P. Callahan) 2019 Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Conference (2019)

The Neolithic (10,000-3,500 BC) was the age of achievement and expansion. This period represented a transition where food-collecting cultures shifted to food-producing ones, which allowed people to establish year round settlements. Many plants were domesticated ...

Lipid Analysis of Synthetic and Natural Algal Polycultures Cultivated in Agricultural Wastewater (Alison R. Good, Patrick K. Thomas, Gary P. Dunn, et al.) Idaho Conference on Undergraduate Research

Microalgae has been shown to be promising for both wastewater treatment and the production of valuable biomass, which can be converted to sustainable biofuels, animal feeds, nutraceuticals, and food supplements. Previous research has demonstrated that ...

Nitrogen Heterocycles and the pre-RNA World (Melissa R. Roberts, Michael P. Callahan, Christopher H. House, et al.) Idaho Conference on Undergraduate Research

It has been suggested that the first informational macromolecules on early Earth were composed of different nucleobases and a backbone different from ribose phosphate due to the challenges of synthesizing nucleotides under plausible prebiotic conditions. ...