Full-length CV can be found here.
Senior researcher Sándor Góbi is currently working for the Laboratory of Molecular Spectroscopy (formerly known as MTA-ELTE Lendület Laboratory Astrochemistry Research Group) led by Professor György Tarczay at the Eötvös University in Budapest, Hungary.
He attained his degree in Chemistry specialized in molecular structure research in 2008 at the Eötvös University in Budapest, Hungary. Then, he was a graduate student in Chemistry, supervised by György Tarczay at the Laboratory of Molecular Spectroscopy in the same institute in 2009–2012, where he obtained his PhD in Chemistry in 2014. His thesis work focused on small flexible organic molecules at low temperature and high vacuum in solid noble gas matrices (matrix isolation or MI technique) accompanied by quantum chemical calculations. Furthermore, a novel method was introduced allowing for an estimation on the reliability of the calculated signs. It was pointed out that this definition can greatly help the proper assignment of the spectra, therefore facilitating the correct determination of the molecular structure. He visited Professor Werner Klotzbücher’s matrix isolation group on multiple occasions, located at the Max Planck Institute für Strahlenchemie in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany.
While he was completing and defending his thesis, he worked as a Research Assistant in the Astrophysical and Geochemical Laboratory of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences under the direction of Ákos Kereszturi between 2012 and 2015. Besides, he took part in active international collaborations with the Laboratory Astrophysics Group in Jena, Germany led by Dr. Cornelia Jäger and the PLANETO group in Grenoble, France led by Bernard Schmitt. These joint research activities were interested on the MI-IR and -UV spectroscopy of interstellar carbonaceous dust analogues produced by laser ablation as well as on the determination of water content of aqueously altered CM2 meteorites with IR spectroscopy. The kinetics of reactions in astrophysical environment was also examined: the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide in martian interfacial water along with the olivine serpentinization processes in protoplanetary disks.
He started his first postdoctoral work in 2015 at the Reaction Dynamics Group of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa led by Professor Ralf I. Kaiser. He was primarily focusing on the electron radiolysis of astrobiologically important molecules (glycine, adenine) in ultra-high vacuum (UHV) conditions in the absence/presence of perchlorates. For this, the FT-IR, UV-VIS, EI-QMS methods and the photoionization reflection time-of-flight mass spectrometry (PI-ReTOF-MS) with vacuum UV photons produced by laser four-wave mixing were utilized. The CO₂ laser irradiation of Murchison meteroite samples was also investigated along with the electron radiolysis and pyrolysis studies of the solid rocket propellant ammonium perchlorate (NH₄ClO₄).
He then worked for the Laboratory of Molecular Cryospectroscopy and Biospectroscopy led by Professor Rui Fausto at the University of Coimbra, Portugal since early 2018 until June 2020. He studied the the radiolysis and tunneling processes of various sulfurous compounds at low temperature, isolated in inert gas matrices. The samples were also deposited and examined as thin films (both the amorphous and crystalline forms).
Sándor Góbi 