The UW’s interdisciplinary astrobiology graduate program looks at the origin of life on Earth and the likely conditions for life to occur on other planets. Among the first of its type in the world, this National Science Foundation-funded training program brings together 14 faculty members from 11 UW departments. Faculty from the departments of microbiology, biochemistry, and genome sciences are addressing such questions as how life may have begun on Earth and how 4 billion years of global change have affected life. They are jointly exploring the most extreme environments supporting life on this planet, whether conditions for life may exist on other planets, and how to search for extinct or extant extraterrestrial life.

Some researchers are studying organisms that survive in seemingly impossible places such as sea ice, hydrothermal vents, and subterranean basalt. Other astrobiology research includes prebiotic and microbiotic evolution, methods for detecting life, and health and environmental issues. This past year, the new program benefited from a five-year, $4.9 million renewable grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The grant will fund research on how, where, and how often habitable planets are formed; how often planets lose their habitability because of comet or asteroid impacts or other factors that trigger mass extinction; and challenges faced by single-cell life evolving to more complex forms. Dr. James Staley, professor of microbiology, directs the astrobiology program.