Away Teams & Field Reports

NAI/American Philosophical Society Lewis and Clark Fund for Exploration and Field Research: 2011 Selections

By Keith Cowing
August 14, 2011

The pool of candidates for the NAI/APS 2011 competition was the largest we have ever experienced. Typically six to seven selections are made annually, however for 2011 twelve young investigators were selected for the Lewis and Clark Fund for Exploration and Field Research in Astrobiology.

Congratulations go to:

Adam Zachary
Montana State University
Travel to the Belt Supergroup, Montana; “Characterizing the Mesoproterozoic Microfossil Record of the Belt Supergroup, Montana”.

James Caporaso
University of Colorado, Boulder
Travel to the Atacama Desert, Chile; “Microbial Community Characterization of the Atacama Desert Soils”.

Mark Claire
University of Washington
Travel to the Atacama Desert, Chile; “Searching for the Driest Place on Earth”.

Alison Conrad
University of California, Santa Cruz
Travel to California and Nevada lakes and hot springs to study; “The Microbial Ecology of Anoxygenic Arsenite Oxidizing Photoautotrophs in Extreme Environments”.

Jessica Corman
Arizona State University
Travel to Cuatro Cienegas, Mexico to examine; “Nutrient Limitation as a Factor for Microbialite Formation in Cuatro Cienegas, Mexico”.

Sarah Hendrickson
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology Travel to South African mines to examine; “Dissolved Organic Carbon Cycling in the Deep Crustal Biosphere”.

Joseph Levy
Portland State University
Travel to Yellowstone National Park to examine; “Chimerya: Cryosphere-Hydrothermal Interactions: Mars-Yellowstone Research for Astrobiology”.

Jeffrey Marlow
California Institute of Technology
Travel to the Hydrate Ridge, OR to assess; “Carbonate based anaerobic methane oxidation at hydrate ridge methane seeps”.

Rebecca McCauley
Pennsylvania State University
Travel to the Bahamas to examine; “Energy-Limited Microbial Communities as an Analog for Archean Life”.

Alberto Robador Ausejo
University of Hawaii
Travel to the Juan de Fuca Ridge to study; “The Biosphere of Subseafloor Basalt Crust”.

Timothy Shirey
University of Alabama
Travel to the Atacama Desert, Chile to study; “The Perchlorate Reduction & Biochemistry in the Atacama Desert: The Search for Biosignatures of Life in a Martian Analog Environment”.

Amelinda Webb
Yale University
Travel to Anticosti Island, Quebec; “Exploring the Ecological Impact of Mass Extinction: Measuring the Effects of Stress on Communities during the Ordovician-Silurian Mass Extinction on Anticosti Island, Quebec, Canada”.

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) 🖖🏻