NASA Astrochemistry

Taking the advice of his friend and mentor Timothy Leary, Charles Apel left the undergraduate physics program at Yale University in 1967 to become a Hippie in San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury district during the Summer of Love. Living with members of the Jefferson Airplane, he met and befriended many of the legends of that period, including Ken Kesey, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and Carlos Santana. After a stint living with the indigenous peoples in the jungles of Colombia to avoid the draft, he returned to San Francisco in the 1970’s (with a presidential pardon from Jimmie Carter) to continue his work in the music business and raise his growing family.

Thirty years and seven children later, Charles decided to return to school and received a B.A. in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology from University of California at Santa Cruz in 1999. In August of 2003 he completed his doctoral thesis and received a Ph.D. in Chemistry working with Dr. David W. Deamer at UCSC. In September of that same year he began his work at the Astrochemistry Laboratory in the Space Science Division here at NASA/Ames as a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow.

Dr. Apel’s scientific focus has been Astrobiology with an emphasis on the origins of cellular life. Charles’ early work characterized the properties of membranous bilayer vesicles of monocarboxylic acids and alcohols as found in carbonaceous chondrites and in the products of simulated deep space UV photochemistry (1). His studies also suggest that terrestrial life may not have originated in the sea as commonly accepted, but instead arose in small ponds of fresh water on early landmasses (2). His present research is concerned with discovering possible roles played by PAH’s in the self-assembly of the first primitive organisms (3). Dr. Apel is currently an Associate Editor of Biosystems Journal.

Charles Apel’s interests include hiking, camping, canoeing, and kayaking and he continues his music with his new world-beat, hypno-trance rock band called the Guru Daddies. His wife, Jinna Wilson, teaches English at a local community college and they now claim over 20 grandchildren.

(1) Apel, C.L., Mautner, M.N., and Deamer, D.W., 2002, Self-assembled vesicles of monocarboxylic acids and alcohols: conditions for stability and the encapsulation of biopolymers, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 1559, pp. 1-9.

(2) Monnard, P.-A., Apel, C.L., Kanavarioti, A., Deamer, D.W., 2002, Influence of ionic inorganic solutes on self-assembly and polymerization processes related to early forms of life: Implications for a prebiotic aqueous medium, Astrobiology, 2, pp.139-152.

(3) Apel, C.L., and Deamer, D.W., 2004, The formation of glycerol monodeanoate by a dehydration/condensation reaction: Increasing the chemical complexity of amphiphiles on the early Earth, Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere, (in press).

Work Biography of Charles Apel