Astrobiology (general)

2012 Lewis and Clark Selections

By Keith Cowing
June 20, 2012

The NAI is pleased to announce selections for the 2012 Lewis and Clark Fund for Exploration and Field Research in Astrobiology.

1. Timothy Gallagher, travel to Michigan, Minnesota and Ontario, to study “Life on Land during the Mesoproterozoic: Evidence from the Midcontinent Rift System”

2. Cara Harwood, travel to Nevada, to examine “Thrombolites as Records of Microbial-metazoan Ecosystems in Cambrian Carbonates of the Southern Great Basin, United States”

3. Jena Johnson, travel to South Africa to investigate “Manganese and the Evolution of Oxygenic Photosynthesis”

4. Cassandra Marnocha, travel to Sweden to study the “Geomicrobiology of Rock Coatings from Karkevagge, Swedish Lapland”

5. Roy Price, travel to New Caledonia, “Expanding Frontiers for Origin of Life Research: Serpentinite-hosted Shallow Hydrothermal Vents”

6. Elizabeth Sibert, travel to Italy to examine “Ichthyoliths Across the Kpg [Cretaceous-paleogene] Boundary: Response of Pelagic Consumers to a Mass Extinction”

7. Erik Sperling, travel to Canada, to study “Oxygen, Ecology, and the Cambrian Radiation of Animals: Insights into the Origin of Complex Life from the Mackenzie Mountains, Northwest Territories, Canada”

8. Elizabeth Wilbanks, travel to Massachusetts to investigate “A Sulfurous Symbiosis: the Dynamic Metatranscriptome of Pinkberries in the Sippewissett Salt Marsh”

The American Philosophical Society and the NASA Astrobiology Institute have partnered to promote the continued exploration of the world around us through a new program of research grants in support of astrobiological field studies undertaken by graduate students, postdocs, and early-career scientists and scholars who are affiliated with U.S. institutions.

For more information: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/nai/funding/lewis-and-clark/

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻