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Dear Astrobiology
Enthusiasts, This year the UW Astrobiology Program
has continued to advance the search for life in the Universe through both our research and our
science leadership. UW Astrobiology faculty and students were involved in exciting
new discoveries about Mars, Enceladus and Europa, provided new constraints on the composition
and atmospheres of terrestrial exoplanets, and explored our own planet from pole to pole and
throughout deep time. UWAB personnel were also involved in national efforts to map the future
of exoplanet science and astrobiology, and had key roles in two new National Academy of Sciences
strategies on Astrobiology and Exoplanets. Our biggest news for the Astrobiology Program this
year was NASA's $11M award to continue the work of the UW’s Virtual Planetary Laboratory (VPL)
for the next 5 years (an award that also indirectly funds the UW Astrobiology Program through
University matching). The VPL is also now part of the new NASA Nexus for Exoplanet System
Science research coordination network, in which I will play a new leadership role. The VPL also
made major impacts on the field of astrobiology this year by identifying and promoting the
importance of environmental context for both the assessment of the habitability of exoplanets,
and the robustness of life detection techniques, themes that were picked up in the NAS reports.
We have a bumper crop of eight students graduating since the autumn including: Matt Tilley (Dual-Title PhD in
Earth and Space Sciences & Astrobiology) who is currently working on UWAB
Professor David Catling’s Simon’s Foundation grant,
to understand the environmental conditions that might have influenced the
origin of life on Earth, Jonathan Bapst (Dual-Title PhD in ESS
& Astrobiology) who is currently a postdoc at the University of Arizona and
looking at moving on to another postdoc researcher position at JPL soon, Nichole Barry (PhD in Physics and
Graduate Certificate in Astrobiology) who is now a postdoctoral fellow at the
University of Melbourne, working with Rachael Webster on detection of
cosmological signals, Chloe Hart (dual-title PhD in ESS and Astrobiology ) who is heading the
industry route and looking at careers in environmental sciences, Anna Simpson (Dual-Title PhD in
Environmental and Forestry Sciences & Astrobiology) who wrapped up her research at the UW over the summer, and Matthew Koehler (Dual-Title PhD in Earth & Space Sciences and Astrobiology) who is a postdoctoral researcher working at JPL/Caltech with UWAB Alumna Ken Williford on metabolic diversity and boundaries of life on the early Earth..
Highlights from our alumni include Prof. Aomawa
Shields (2013 Dual-Title PhD in Astronomy &
Astrobiology) who won a 5-year NSF CAREER award for "Bridging Theory and
Observations of Habitable Worlds and Building a Bridge to Astronomy and
Astrobiology for Underrepresented Middle-School Girls”, and Dr. Giada Arney (2016, Dual-Title PhD
in Astronomy & Astrobiology), a scientist on the LUVOIR telescope mission
concept at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, who won a NASA Early Career Achievement
Award.
Dr. David Smith (2012 Dual-Title PhD in Biology &
Astrobiology) also won a NASA Space Biology grant to launch balloons from
Antarctica to examine how spacecraft-associated bacteria could be influenced
by radiation levels expected on a long duration mission to Mars, and if any
changes pose a potential risk to astronauts.
We have several research highlights, awards and significant events to celebrate as our
students and faculty contribute to scientific discovery in the US and abroad.
See the newsletter sidebar for highlights of scientific publications since
December, and “Where in the World are our Astrobiologists” for a summary of
our trips across the planet in search of Astrobiology discoveries, many of
which were supported by donor funds. In the area of awards and recognition,
Program Director Prof. Victoria
Meadows (Astronomy) won the SETI 2018 Frank Drake
Award for significant contributions to the search for life in the universe,
and Prof. David Catling (ESS) won an Outstanding Researcher Award from the UW College
of the Environment. New Astrobiology Program Faculty Member Prof. Jodi Young (Oceanography) received a UW Innovation Award to develop a
laboratory sea-ice system.
We will offer our Astrobiology Colloquium Series again in Spring of 2019, with cutting edge
astrobiology research presented by visiting and local experts. These
presentations are pitched to be accessible to an interdisciplinary audience.
Select talks in this series are webcast and recorded and can be viewed live
on your web-browser. The recordings can also be accessed at any time
(instructions on how to join in are provided in the Newsletter sidebar).
Click
here
for recordings of the Spring and Autumn 2018 colloquia, as well as recorded colloquia from previous years.
Finally, I’ll end this letter by asking readers to please consider making a donation to support the
Astrobiology Program. Despite all our research funding successes, government
research funding cannot be used for most of the Program’s educational
activities, including field workshops and training experiences in other
labs. Donor funds can also help support career enriching opportunities for our students such as conference
attendance and scientific field trips. Any contribution, no matter how small, will be extremely welcome, and
will help us to maintain our vigorous and excellent program as we search for
life beyond our Earth!
Two microbial strains, originally isolated by
Read the Full Article Prof. Victoria
Meadows Director, UW
Astrobiology Program |
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