Onstott, a professor of geomicrobiology in the Department of Geosciences at Princeton University, is a member of the NASA Astrobiology Institute’s Indiana-Princeton-Tennessee Astrobiology Initiative (IPTAI), an NAI research team focusing on detection of biosustainable energy and nutrient cycling in the deep subsurface of Earth and Mars. Onstott is collaborating with geochemists, chemists, microbiologists, and hydrologists on the IPTAI team to investigate the physical and chemical limitations on subsurface Earth life, toward developing subsurface life detection strategies for Mars.

Onstott is one of 19 “scientists and thinkers” included in the “Time 100.” “Until we collect living aliens, he’s showing us they’re probably there to be found,” writes Time’s Carolyn Sayre. For more information on Onstott’s work, see: http://geoweb.princeton.edu/people/faculty/onstott/index.html.