2025 LIFE NASA RCN Seminar Series
Time: September 11th, 8AM PDT/11AM EDT
Join the 2025 LIFE NASA RCN Seminar Series
This month’s speakers are Prof. Jennifer Macalady and Dr. Alta Howells.
Dr. Jennifer Macalady is a professor in the Department of Geosciences at Pennsylvania State University and director of the International Geobiology Course. Her lab explores the complex interactions between life and earth materials in numerous environments from sunlit soils to subsurface caves. Using the emerging tools of microbial ecology and geochemistry, she investigates the carbon, iron and sulfur cycles to inform how they have changed throughout Earth history and how they influence the Earth’s climate today.
The title of Dr. Macalady’s talk is “Microbial Pyrite Production”.
Dr. Alta Howells is a microbial ecologist and biogeochemist whose research investigates how microorganisms influence methane cycling in extreme water–rock hosted ecosystems. She studies the interactions between microbial metabolisms and geochemical processes to reveal the mechanisms that regulate methane production and consumption. She is presently a Research Associate in the Department of Geological Sciences at University of Colorado, Boulder and a staff scientist with Blue Marble Space Institute of Sciences.
The title of Dr. Howells’ talk is “Methanogenesis at Dissolved Inorganic Carbon Extremes: How CO2 Availability Shapes Methanogen Physiology”.
Astrobiology
