NAI Director’s Discretionary Fund

Two BMSIS scientists have been selected for a 2015 DDF award through the NASA Astrobiology Institute! Dr. Laurie Barge (JPL) has been selected for her proposal, “Catalytic Diversity at the Emergence of Metabolism: Hydrothermal Carbon Dioxide Reduction on Fe/Ni-Sulfide Catalysts.” Dr. Barge will lead a team of investigators to simulate hydrothermal vent systems in an effort to understand the potential role of these environments in the origin of life. Eddie Schwieterman (University of Washington) has been selected for his proposal, […]

November 11, 2014

NPP Newsletter Features Rika Anderson

The quarterly newsletter of the NASA Postdoctoral Program features our own Dr. Rika Anderson in a “First Impressions” article about her NPP fellowship. Her time as a fellow of the NASA Astrobiology Institute will be split across the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, the University of Washington, and Yellowstone National Park–all in pursuit of studying Archaea and their highly-evolved suitability to extreme environments. [Read the article in the NASA NPP newsletter]

April 10, 2014

NAI Seminar with Dr. Mark Claire

Our own Dr. Mark Claire will be featured April 14th @ 11 AM (Pacific) on the NASA Astrobiology Institute’s NPP Alumni Seminar Series. Dr. Claire’s will discuss themes from his ongoing research in his talk titled, “Clues to Atmospheric Evolution in Earth’s Earliest Sediments”, where he explores the concentration of atmospheric oxygen through time. NAI NPP Alumni Seminar Series with Dr. Mark Claire April 14th @ 11:00 AM (Pacific) Join via Adobe Connect: https://connect.arc.nasa.gov/npp-alumni/

November 25, 2013

Search for the Origin of Life – The Movie

Search for the Origin of Life is a new documentary movie made in collaboration with the NASA Astrobiology Institute and Montana State University and distributed by PBS International. Featuring 8 astrobiologists, including BMSIS scientist Dr. Betül Kacar, the show takes a personal look at individual researchers who, through their experiments and field work, seek to understand the very beginnings of life on Earth. [Watch the full video at Montana PBS]

November 11, 2013

Dr. Rika Anderson Awarded NAI Fellowship

Our own Dr. Rika Anderson was selected for the prestigious NASA Astrobiology Postdoctoral Program for her proposal titled, “Unraveling the impact of ecological selection pressures on the archaeal pangenome”. In her research, Dr. Anderson seeks to understand the evolution of microorganisms and how they adapt to fill new ecological niches. She will compare the genomics of organisms adapted to extreme environments by studying several species collected from Yellowstone National Park. The goal of this research is to understand the factors […]