# Dimitar Sasselov Phillips Professor of Astronomy Director, Origins of Life Initiative ![2-dimitar_sasselov.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum8321/files/styles/hwp_4_5__480x600/public/itc/files/2-dimitar_sasselov_1.jpg?itok=H0aX16l3) location\_on Perkin Lab, P-336 Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics 60 Garden Street, MS-16 Cambridge, MA 02138 smartphone [(617) 495-7451]() laptop\_windows [Professional Website](https://sasselov.cfa.harvard.edu/) laptop\_windows [Origins of Life](http://origins.harvard.edu/) laptop\_windows [Students](http://astronomy.fas.harvard.edu/people/term/1936) *Research Interests:* Professor Sasselov studies the interaction between light and matter (radiative transfer) from stars and exoplanets to biomolecules at the origins of life, and astrobiology in general. He runs a photochemistry lab exploring the origins of life's building blocks with photochemical and photodynamic experiments. He is the director of Harvard's Origins of Life Initiative, an interdisciplinary institute that joins biologists, chemists and astronomers in searching for the starting points of life on Earth (and possibly elsewhere). - ## People Role [Associate Senior ITC Members](/people-role/associate-senior-itc-members) - ## Research Area [Planetary Astronomy](/research-area/planetary-astronomy) [Stars](/research-area/stars)