Where did life come from? How do stars and planets form?

Professor Avina Vandishok has devoted her career to answering these questions.

In 2018, she received the Cavley Prize in Astrophysics for her work,

Scientific American Custom Media, and partnership with the Cavley Prize

reconnected with Avina to discuss the latest developments

and unraveling the mysteries of space. Avina Vandishok is known for studying the universe,

but her career could have gone in a completely different direction.

My scientific love is especially for molecules.

I just had a very good high school teacher in chemistry and not so good at physics,

and that's what drove me to chemistry at the university.

But then Avina's advisor died, and she was left without an academic direction.

My then boyfriend's and now husband, he had actually just taken a course

and he had heard about these molecules in interstellar space,

and he said to me, well, isn't that something for you?

So, Avina shifted her focus from chemistry on Earth to chemistry in space.

So, it was actually a fantastic opportunity, still the same molecules,

but now in a much more interesting laboratory, actually,

the biggest laboratory that you can imagine.

In that giant laboratory, Avina turned her attention not to planets and stars,

but space between them, called interstellar clouds.

It's such a tenuous gas that is there,

yet it is the material out of which new stars and new planets are being born.

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