Hailey Enamorado

Hailey Enamorado is a Master’s student in Earth & Ocean Sciences at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences from Louisiana State University, where she began her research career in the biomedical field at Pennington Biomedical Research Center. As an undergraduate, Hailey worked in the Vascular Metabolism Laboratory, investigating the use of an experimental drug, SG100, in the treatment of Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction (HFpEF).

At Horn Point Laboratory, Hailey works with her advisor, Dr. Andrea Pain, under NASA’s Interdisciplinary Consortia for Astrobiology Research (ICAR) program as a member of the “Above & Below” team (AstroBiOlogical inVEstigation of Biosignatures Emblematic of Life on Ocean Worlds), which investigates the preservation and detectability of biosignatures such as amino acids on the icy ocean worlds of Enceladus and Europa. Her research focuses on understanding amino acid preservation and detectability in astrobiological contexts, with particular interest in how fluorescence spectroscopy can be used to detect biosignatures present in ice.

Hailey is passionate about exploring life beyond Earth and believes that scientific research empowers us to pursue questions as vast as the universe itself. She is driven by the idea that imagination and curiosity are fundamental tools in expanding our understanding of life’s origins and its potential beyond our planet.