2025 Amelia Earhart Fellow

Émilie Laflèche is a Ph.D. candidate in planetary sciences at Purdue University. Her research combines biogeochemical, photochemical and radiative transfer modeling to explore how seasonal changes on Earth-like exoplanets may influence future life detection efforts. Her work is directly tied to NASA's upcoming Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), the first space-based telescope designed specifically to search for signs of life on exoplanets.

Ms. Laflèche's research contributes to several key science cases that will shape the design and instrumentation of HWO, helping to define humanity's search for life beyond Earth for decades to come. She received her Bachelor of Science with honors in planetary sciences from McGill University, where she conducted research on surface mapping of simulated exoplanets, remote sensing of lunar impact melt deposits, and experimental precipitation of Martian analog bioclays.

During her time at McGill, Ms. Laflèche founded and chaired the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada's Next Gen Youth Committee, for which she was awarded the RASC President's Award. In 2022, she was selected to command a lunar analog mission at the LunAres Research Station in Poland, where she led research projects on 3D-printed geological tools and food growth in lunar analog soils. Following this mission, she founded and led Purdue's Student-Analog Astronaut Training Program (SA2TP) from 2022-2023, a training and support network for the next generation of analog astronauts.

Ms. Laflèche is also passionate about space ethics and is currently co-leading an interdisciplinary study on ethical issues in astrobiology research alongside a team of philosophers and astrobiologists. She actively contributes to several STEM mentoring and public outreach initiatives at Purdue and beyond.

After completing her Ph.D., she aspires to join the Habitable Worlds Observatory science team as a research scientist at NASA, and one day become an astronaut.