Editor’s note (Keith Cowing): I get a lot of inquiries asking where someone can get a degree in Astrobiology. There are many places to do that around the world. I will be placing a directory of these opportunities online at Astrobiology.com at some point in the near future. In the mean time, this is an example of an Astrobiology undergraduate program that Arizona State University has offered for more than a decade.
I got my B.A. degree in biology in 1984 and my Masters in Biology 1986. Exobiology was a small, somewhat scattered field. Most space life science research focused on space biology and space medicine. I did what I could to make it as space-capable as possible. I did graduate research on embryonic chicken bone formation in an ambiguous gravitational field (in a clinostat).
That is me with the 2.5 meter space station centrifuge mockup at NASA Ames. I was the payload accommodations manager. Sadly this hardware never flew due to politics and budgets.
This was before “Astrobiology” became a thing and my focus was mostly on what is known as “Space Biology”. I was one of the very first student members of the American Society for Space and Gravitation Research. I ended up at the NASA HQ Life Science Division and then moved to the Space Station program to help plan life science research hardware. And I participated in all of the foundational NASA Astrobiology program creation meetings in 1996 and 1997. Hooray. I was lucky.
Looking at this Astrobiology B.S. degree description from ASU, it is more or less what I tried to get at as I tweaked my course work back in the 80s. There are many other ways to do this and become an Astrobiologist – and certainly NOT only in the U.S.
I hope to try and get a better resource online for all of you. In the mean time, have a look at the first of many examples.
Earth and Space Exploration (Astrobiology and Biogeosciences), BS Catalog Year: 2025 – 2026, ASU
How do “living worlds” work? Explore the complex connections between life and planetary systems. Learn how astronomy, biology, geology and chemistry combine to shape the habitability of planets and Earth’s extreme environments. Discover how to detect life on other planetary bodies or in remote environments on Earth.
Program description
Astrobiology and biogeosciences are closely related. Astrobiology informs the exploration for life on other worlds, while biogeosciences motivates exploration of life’s limits on Earth.
You acquire a strong and rigorous foundation in geology, biology, chemistry and astronomy in the astrobiology and biogeosciences concentration in the Bachelor of Science program in Earth and space exploration. You develop the systems-thinking perspective needed to:
- contribute to the search for life on other planets
- study how the integrated Earth-life system evolves and responds to global environmental challenges
- understand the complex and evolving diversity and distribution of life on Earth
In addition to reviewing the guidelines in the Concurrent Program Options section below, if you are interested in pursuing concurrent or second baccalaureate degrees in The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, you can visit The College’s website for more information and requirements.
Astrobiology,
Back in 1974, when I was attending an orientation session prior to beginning my first quarter at Ohio State, I met with an academic advisor to discuss my curriculum and future plans. I was an Honors student, which meant I could design my own major. Born in 1956, I’d followed space closely almost from age 4, when I started reading. I read everything I could get my hands on, especially after the successes of Mariners 4, 6 and 7. My heroes were the likes of Eugene Shoemaker, Carl Sagan, and Wolf Vishniac. But I wasn’t sure I had the chops to become a scientist myself; instead, I aspired to major in a field of science and get a minor in journalism, and then become a science reporter for a leading publication, like, say, The New York Times, whose correspondent at the time was John Noble Wilford.
My advisor asked what I wanted to major in, and I immediately replied, “Exobiology.” He looked at me with a blank expression, so I quickly added, “It’s the branch of biology that searches for life beyond Earth.” He scoffed and said, “You can’t do that. There’s no such thing.” It was a devastating reply, one that appeared to scuttle any hopes of pursuing my dream.
I floundered around for my first two quarters, then had the good fortune to take a course on the history of scientific revolutions, and another on the history of technology, and wound up majoring in the history of science and technology. I went on to do my graduate work at University of Delaware, where, in addition to furthering my training in history, I was able to earn a certificate in museum studies. It proved to be a propitious move: years later, as a senior exhibition coordinator at the Smithsonian, I spearheaded the initial planning for a major exhibit on the Hubble Space Telescope, and attended lectures and seminars where I was able to meet Sagan, Shoemaker, Ed Stone, and other figures.
So, even though I never managed to major in exobiology, the dream never died. To this day, Astrobiology.com is one of the first things I turn to each morning, vicariously deriving enormous pleasure in reading about the latest news in this fascinating field.
Keith’s Update – I fell for this again – after decades of making the same mistake. John C Rummel (JSC) vs John D Rummel (NASA HQ). Oh well I will tell John D that I said nice things about him. ///// Original post. Thanks John. I am most flattered by your kind words about this website. Everyone: I am only a few months older than John Rummel. I first met him and Mel Averner and the rest of NASA life science team at NASA HQ in 1986. Around that time I also met my long-term collaborator Dale Andersen (same age as us).
Among many of my adventures was running peer review panels for research proposals and I was always amazed at how thick Carl Sagan’s resume was. At a NASA conference in 1987 that I organized Sagan stole my joke – one I made when I handed him his bulky laser pointer as he took the stage.
I grew up knowing that we’d land on the Moon, I watched Ranger probes crash into it. Mercury flights evolve into Gemini flights and then into Apollo flights. My parents figured out that anytime there was a flight I’d suddenly be too sick to go to school so I could watch mission coverage.
I first read Shklovskii and Sagan’s “Intelligent Life in The Universe” when it first came out in 1996. I was 11 (my mother worked at the Library so I had an adult card). To this day I sill use little triangles in my hand written notes to highlight ideas etc – and it is directly traceable to the way Sagan inserted his thoughts into Shklovskii’s original text. Seeing “2001” in 1968 totally welded the notion of life elsewhere into my little brain.
At NASA I also watched all of the legends of exobiology and space biology walk past me int he halls, sit near me in meetings. The coolest example was in 1996/1997 when I was able to participate in the initial NASA meetings that created what Astrobiology has now become.
I am really happy to see that John includes Astrobiology.com in his daily routine. For me, as someone also trying to ‘retire’, the several hours I spend every day on this site is my escape from our dysfunctional planet so as to soar outward into the cosmos and also dive deep within life itself. This keeps me centered amidst a sea of human nonsense back here on our home world.
I am now looking to expand the website further so as to give more Astrobiologists – both practicing professionals and aspiring students – a chance to escape as well. As the website says “Life Looks For Life. Vita quaerit vitae.” — Keith
Keith—Just to clarify, and to avoid any possible confusion, I’m a ‘Rumm,’ not a ‘Rummel’—and, in fact, only recently learned about there actually being two of them, with different middle initials. After realizing that, I reached out to John C. Rummel and told him that even though I had regrets about never making it into exobiology or astrobiology, I could derive some comfort in knowing that at least the ‘Rumm’ part of my name still found its way there!
Like you, I followed each and every mission as a boy growing up; I can still remember how I prevailed upon my dad, back on June 2, 1966, to wake me at 2 a.m. so that I could watch TV coverage of Surveyor 1’s landing attempt, which it succeeded in doing, at 2:17 a.m. And I can also remember listening, with bated breath, almost exactly 10 years later, to radio coverage of Viking 1’s touchdown on Mars, hoping to hear that when it took its first views of its landing site, it would show something like a cactus or some other form of life, and being disappointed when it didn’t. But so it goes . . .
I wonder if future generations, hundreds of years from now (assuming, of course, we humans make it that long) will look back with twinges of regret and jealousy over not being alive from the 1960s to the early 2000s, when the Moon and the Solar System and everything in it went from being almost unknown, to being better-known than parts of Earth itself. How fortunate we’ve been to live through these years of revelation, epiphany, and exhilaration!
Oh my that is interesting! There is another Keith Cowing (there are only 2 of us on Earth) and he gets lots of TV interview requests for NASA. Small planet! Glad to make your acquaintance. WRT name fragments, I had a lot of fun watching “Interstellar‘ and then seeing the large Ranger spacecraft prop since my last name is on it – with an “L” inserted ;-). Story here: https://nasawatch.com/2014/11/07/visiting-interstellars-spacecraft/