Home / Events & Seminars / Seminar Series

The NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) hosts a series of seminars that fall into 3 categories:

• Director's Seminar Series
• Forum for Astrobiology Research (FAR) Series
• University of Washington Astrobiology Seminar Series
• Special Events
• NAI Team Overview
• Other

Director's Seminar Series

DATE PRESENTER TITLE PODCAST 5/21/2012 Peter T. Doran Human and Robotic Astrobiological Research in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica 4/30/2012 Natalie Batalha Kepler's Year-Three Transit Census 3/5/2012 Michael Hecht Enabling Life with a Molecular Toolkit of Genes and Proteins Designed De Novo 1/30/2012 Paul Davies Cancer as Metazoa 1.0 11/28/2011 John Peters New Insights into the Transition of Iron-sulfur Compounds from Minerals to Enzymes 11/7/2011 Kurt Konhauser Banded Iron Formation and Ancient Life 9/26/2011 David Deamer Hydrothermal Conditions and the Origin of Cellular life 5/23/2011 Mark Allen ESA/NASA ExoMars/Trace Gas Orbiter: A Search for Extant Habitability and Habitancy 4/25/2011 Jay Kaufman Irreversible Oxidation of the Exosphere and Acceleration of the Biosphere Across the Archean-paleoproterozoic Transition 3/28/2011 George Cody Establishing a Common Origin for Carbonaceous Solids in Comets, IDPs, and Primitive Chondrites 2/28/2011 Dawn Sumner Linking Microbial Behaviors to Microbialite Morphology 2/7/2011 Burckhard Seelig Potential Origin of Early Functional Proteins 12/6/2010 Elizaveta Bonch-Osmolovskaya Anaerobic Thermophilic Lithoautotrophs: Life Without Light and Oxygen 12/1/2010 David Gilichinsky Permafrost Astrobiology: Field Expedition to Terrestrial Analogues of Martian Habitats and Inhabitants 11/29/2010 Jenn Macalady Pale Pink Dot Part II: Microbial Signatures of Ancient Oceans 10/25/2010 Ken Stedman Quo vadis Astrovirology? 9/27/2010 John Valley Clement Conditions in the "Hadean" 6/21/2010 Lee Kump Evolution of the Oceans: Pale Pink Dot Download 6/7/2010 Katrina Edwards Intraterrestrial Life on Earth 3/29/2010 Don Brownlee Comets and the Early Solar System - Results from the Stardust Comet Sample Return Mission 3/1/2010 Tori Hoehler Energy Flow and Life: A Thermodynamic-Kinetic View of Biology in its Relationship with the Environment Download 1/25/2010 William Borucki Status of Kepler Mission and Early Discoveries Download 11/30/2009 Andrew Pohorille Is Water Necessary for Life? Download 10/26/2009 Mark Young A Changing View of Viruses in the Evolution and Ecology of Life 10/5/2009 Daniel Glavin Southpaw Solar System: L-Amino Acid Excesses in Meteorites and the Implications for the Origin of Homochirality on Earth Download 6/29/2009 Chris Scholin Application of the Environmental Sample Processor (ESP) in Deep-sea and Coastal Ocean Biomes 11/24/2008 Roger Summons The Great Mass Extinction - a Sudden Event or a Slow Moving Train-Wreck? Download 11/3/2008 Jack Szostak What can we Learn About the Origin of Life from Efforts to Design an Artificial Cell? Download 9/29/2008 Norm Sleep Habitability of Super-Earths Download 6/30/2008 David Blake The CheMin mineralogical instrument on the MSL mission and the field-portable TERRA version available for NAI field campaigns Download 6/2/2008 Giovanna Tinetti Observing Extrasolar Worlds: From Gas Giant to Terrestrial Planets Download 4/28/2008 Steven Benner Four Approaches to a General Theory of Life Download 3/31/2008 Jody Deming and James Staley Earth's Low Temperature Life: An Analog for Mars and Europa? Download 2/25/2008 J. William Schopf Can Rocks from Mars Yield Definitive Evidence of Past Life? Download 2/4/2008 David Hollenbach The Effect of Protoplanetary Disk Dispersal on Planet Formation Download 12/3/2007 Geoff Marcy Getting to the Core of Exoplanets: From Gas to Ice Giants Download 11/5/2007 Ariel Anbar A Whiff of Oxygen before the Great Oxidation Event Download 9/24/2007 Norman Pace Life in the Universe: The Expanding World of Microbial Diversity Download 4/30/2007 Steven D'Hondt Microbial Activities in Deep Subseafloor Sediments Download 3/26/2007 Drake Deming Infrared Spectra of Extrasolar Planets Download 2/26/2007 Tim Raub New and Emerging Perspectives on Late Precambrian 'Snowball Earth' Glaciation Download 1/29/2007 Lisa Pratt and T.C. Onstott Radiolysis of water as a source of bioavailable energy in the subsurface of Earth and Mars Download 11/27/2006 Sean Raymond and Avi Mandell Formation of Habitable Planetary Systems: Are We Normal? Download 10/16/2006 Julie Huber Microbial Diversity in the Deep Sea and the Underexplored Rare Biosphere Download 4/24/2006 Scott Sandford The Stardust Discovery Mission - Returning Unique Samples of Early Solar System Organics Download 3/20/2006 Michael Manga Water on Mars 2/27/2006 Tom McCollom The Origin of Sulfate-rich Bedrock at Meridiani Planum on Mars: Sedimentary Evaporite, Impact, or Volcanic? 10/24/2005 Michael Jura Using White Dwarfs to Study Extrasolar Asteroids and Planets 9/26/2005 Michael Meyer Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems: Placing Our Habitable Solar System in Context 7/25/2005 Ralph Lorenz Lifting Titan's Veil 6/27/2005 Ben Zuckerman High Resolution Imaging of Young Planets 4/25/2005 David Wolpert and William Macready Self-dissimilarity: an empirical complexity signature 3/28/2005 Michael Mumma Methane on Mars: Geochemistry or Biology? 3/28/2005 James Lyons Methane on Mars: What does it mean? 2/28/2005 Olivier Rouxel Iron Isotope Constraints on the Early Redox History of the Oceans 1/24/2005 Jonathan Lunine Titan: A Personal View after Cassini's first six months in Saturn orbit 11/29/2004 Chris McKay Drilling in Permafrost on Mars to Search for a Second Genesis of Life 10/25/2004 Christopher House Anaerobic methanotrophs in the marine subsurface 9/27/2004 Peter Ward A new mechanism of mass extinction - and 15 minutes about a new tree of life 4/26/2004 Victoria Meadows Exploring the Living Cosmos: The Spitzer Space Telescope 3/22/2004 Roger Summons Organic Biosignatures: Earthly biomarkers, analytical approaches, old rocks and meteorites 2/23/2004 David Des Marais The Mars Exploration Rovers unveil new horizons for astrobiology 1/26/2004 Andrea Ghez Unveiling a Supermassive Black Hole at the Center of Our Galaxy 11/24/2003 Jill Banfield An Fe, S-sustained Subsurface Biosphere: Insights Through Linking Geochemistry and Genomics 10/27/2003 Kai-Uwe Hinrichs Organic biosignatures for microbial processes in the terrestrial marine subsurface 8/25/2003 Linda Amaral Zettler Eukaryotes at pH Extremes 7/28/2003 Jim Tiedje Microbial and Genomic Insights Into Microbial Life in Permafrost 6/23/2003 Jose Maria Gomez, David Hochberg Multicellular and Multicolonial Bacterial Patterns: Implications for Astrobiology 5/19/2003 John Bally Star and Planet Formation 4/28/2003 Anurag Sharma Experimental window into high pressure geobiology 3/24/2003 Tom Quinn The Formation of Giant Planets 2/24/2003 David Smith Probing the Limits of Earth¹s Deep Biosphere 11/25/2002 Bruce Runnegar Sulfur cycling on the early Earth 10/28/2002 Michael Storrie-Lombardo Life Detection and Sensors: Bio-Info-Nano Science 5/20/2002 Ronald Greeley Mars - The Astrobiology Connection 4/29/2002 George Cody Mineral Catalysts and Pre-biotic Carbon Fixation 3/25/2002 Ariel Anbar Novel Isotopic Biosignatures: Promise & Progress 2/25/2002 Norman Pace Extreme Life and Biological Diversity in our Solar System 1/28/2002 Louis Allamandola From Interstellar Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Ice to Astrobiology

Forum for Astrobiology Research (FAR) Series

DATE PRESENTER TITLE PODCAST 10/6/2008 William J. Brazelton and Catherine Neish Prebiotic Chemistry Download 10/15/2007 Elise Furlan First Steps of Planet Formation in Protoplanetary Disks Download 10/15/2007 Evgenya Shkolnik The On/Off Nature of Star-Planet Interactions: A Probe of Magnetized Exoplanets Download 9/12/2005 Dustin Trail A record of the earliest (4.5-3.8 Ga) surface conditions on Earth? 8/8/2005 Liliana Lefticariu Simulating groundwater radiolysis with oxidation of pyrite by hydrogen peroxide solution 6/20/2005 Daniel Apai and Murray Silverstone Exploring Planet-forming and Debris Disks 5/16/2005 Boncho P. Bonev Quantifying Water Production in Comets - the "Meter Stick" for their Chemical Taxonomy 3/14/2005 Margaret Turnbull Remote Sensing of Life and Habitable Worlds: Habstars, Earthshine, and the Challenge of TPF 2/14/2005 Monica Ponder Life of a permafrost bacterium: Psychrobacter 273-4 reveals ways to adapt 9/13/2004 Dominic Papineau Biogeochemical responses to the changing Paleoproterozoic atmosphere 8/9/2004 SUIA Students Amanda Cook, Anita Ganesan, Nida Rauf and Marina Yoder 7/12/2004 Marc Fries Establishing a Baseline for Antarctic Meteorite Research through the Antarctic Meteorite Contamination Study (AMCS) 7/12/2004 Nick Platts A new model for the origin of proto-informational oligomeric material on the early Earth, and elsewhere 6/14/2004 Andrew Czaja Illuminating The Black Box That Is Fossil Kerogen 6/14/2004 David Smith Oxygen Triple Isotopes as a New Biogeochemical Tool 5/10/2004 Corey Cohn Pyrite-generated radicals and the destruction of nucleic acids 5/10/2004 Dave Johnston Isotopic fingerprints of sulfur metabolisms: using the minor isotopes to distinguish between process 4/12/2004 Mark Tyra TERRESTRIAL ALTERATION OF CM CHONDRITIC CARBONATE 3/8/2004 Kevin Hand The surface radiation chemistry of Europa and implications for a habitable ocean 2/9/2004 Brian Hynek Martian Water on the Brain 11/10/2003 Julie Huber Expanding the subseafloor biosphere to ridge flanks and beyond 10/20/2003 Jennifer Heldmann An Investigation of Recent Water on Mars 9/8/2003 Sara Martinez Looking for Hydrothermal Systems on Mars: An Integrated Study of Spectroscopic, Thermal, and Imaging Data 7/14/2003 Kevin Boyce How to make a leaf? 400 million years of repeated answers to the same evolutionary question 6/9/2003 Ruth Ley The Amazon Basin of the Mud World: Dizzying Microbial Diversity at Guerrero Negro's Salt Mats. 5/12/2003 Henry Scott Chemical stratification and hydrocarbon stability in large icy satellites 4/14/2003 Michelle Minitti Assessing the Effect of Impact Shock on Water in Amphibole: Implications for the Martian Meteorites 3/10/2003 Alex Pavlov Atmospheric methane and oxygen in Archean and Proterozoic. Constraints from sulfur 2/7/2002 Stacy Varnes Biological Potential of Martian Hydrothermal Systems

University of Washington Astrobiology Seminar Series

DATE PRESENTER TITLE PODCAST 5/8/2012 Bethany Ehlmann The Earliest Aqueous, Habitable(?) Environments on Mars: A View from Orbit 5/1/2012 Everett Shock Geochemistry Meets Biochemistry in Hydrothermal Ecosystems 4/24/2012 Antigona Segura Tales of Habitability: The Curious Case of M Dwarf Planets 3/27/2012 Dirk Schulze-Makuch The Future of Human Life: Mars, Exoplanets, and the 100-year Starship Project 11/15/2011 David Des Marais Exploring Mars for Evidence of Habitable Environments and Life 11/1/2011 Kevin Walsh How the Migration of Jupiter Shaped the Inner Solar System: "The Grand Tack" 10/18/2011 Robert Tyler The Importance of Tidal Flow in Maintaining an Abundance of Liquid Oceans in the Universe 4/19/2011 Matthew T. Hurtgen The Role of Sulfur in Regulating Earth Surface Oxygen Levels. 4/12/2011 Nicholas V. Hud A Self-Assembly Approach to the Proto-RNA World 4/5/2011 Brent C. Christner Subglacial Environments: The other deep biosphere. 3/29/2011 Jenn Macalady A Rainbow of Ocean States 12/7/2010 Mark Skidmore The (sub)glacial biosphere, microbial activity at zero degrees Celsius and below 11/16/2010 Christophe Sotin The Habitability of Icy Moons 10/19/2010 Jim Kasting Atmospheric Composition and Climate on the Early Earth 6/1/2010 Matt Pasek High Energy Processing of Phosphorus on the Early Earth 5/25/2010 Dawn Sumner Microbial Mat - Environment Interactions in Lake Joyce, Antarctica, and Implications for Archean Microbialites 5/11/2010 Antonio Lazcano The 1953 Miller Experiment and the Origins of Life: The ghosts behind the molecules 4/20/2010 David Kring Lunar Impact Cataclysm: Implications for astrobiological conditions throughout our solar system & in other planetary systems 4/6/2010 Webster Cash Starshades and Direct Observation of Exoplanets 12/8/2009 Loren Williams Where Did Protein Come From? 12/1/2009 Nancy Kiang Efficiency of Photon Energy Use for Life Processes: Implications for spectral biosignatures 11/10/2009 Kevin Hand Joule Heating of the South Polar Terrain on Enceladus 11/3/2009 Chris McKay Results from the Mars Phoenix Mission for Mars Habitability and comparisons to Mars-like places on Earth 10/27/2009 Jade Bond The Diversity of Extrasolar Terrestrial Planets 10/20/2009 Steven Benner Understanding the Origin of Life 5/19/2009 Dirk Schulze-Makuch Mars, Venus, and What's Life Got To Do With it 5/5/2009 Felisa Wolfe-Simon Geobiochemistry and Evolutionary Metallomics: The evolution of life and the biochemical consequences of Earth history 4/28/2009 Stephen Wood Mars Subsurface Warming at Low Obliquity: Potential for periodic production of liquid water 4/21/2009 George Cody Geomimetic Biochemistry: How the Origin of Biochemistry may be Linked to the Earth's Early Abiotic Organic Landscape 4/7/2009 Melissa Trainer Abiotic Chemistry, Atmospheric Hazes, Titan, and the Early Earth 12/2/2008 Tori Hoehler Quantifying Habitability as Organism/Environment Energy Balance 11/4/2008 Joshua Bandfield A complex compositional and aqueous history of Mars Download 10/7/2008 Rory Barnes Habitability of Tidally-Locked Terrestrial Exoplanets Download 5/20/2008 Andrew Pohorille Cyanobacteria in a Lunar Environment 5/13/2008 James Kasting Was the Early Earth Hot? Download 4/29/2008 Jeremy Bailey Using Polarization to Detect and Characterize Extrasolar Planets Download 4/22/2008 Siegfried Franck Earth System Analysis: Applications to Astrobiology Download 4/8/2008 Janet Siefert Stromatolites: What's Sulfur Got to Do With It? Download 11/20/2007 Matthew Pasek Phosphorus and the Origin of Life Download 11/6/2007 Ram Samudrala Modelling Interactomes Download 10/23/2007 Robert M. Winglee Plasma/Upper Amtospheric Interactions Within the Saturn/Titan System Download 10/16/2007 Sean Raymond Exotic Earths: Hot Jupiters, Tidal Evolution, and Ocean Planets Download 10/9/2007 David Crisp Measuring CO2 from Space: the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) Mission Download 10/2/2007 Erika Harnett Mars: where did all the water go? Download 5/29/2007 Joe Kirschvink Four Billion Years of Climate Change (Lessons from the Precambrian): From Oxygen Poisoning to Snowballs & True Polar Wander Download 5/1/2007 Robert M. Hazen LEFT & RIGHT: Geochemical origins of life's homochirality Download 2/20/2007 Megan Elwood Madden Gas hydrates as planetary-scale water and greenhouse gas reservoirs: Implications for Astrobiology Download 1/30/2007 Marc Kuchner From Carbon Planets to Water Planets: The Composition of Low-mass Extrasolar Planets Download 1/23/2007 Vikki Meadows Planets Around Other Stars: Exploring Habitability and Spectral Signatures Download 11/14/2006 David Deamer Self-assembly Processes in the Prebiotic Environment Download 10/24/2006 George Shaw A (not so) Brief History of Carbon on Earth Download 10/17/2006 Mario Livio Cosmology and Life Download 12/6/2005 Eric Agol The Future of Extrasolar Planet Searches 11/29/2005 Martin Fisk Life in igneous rocks on Earth and Mars 11/22/2005 Donald Brownlee A Report on the Stardust Mission 12/7/2004 Maria Rivera The Ring of Life Provides Evidence for a Genome Fusion Origin of Eukaryotes 11/16/2004 Penny Boston Life Below and Life "Out There": The Role of Caves in Astrobiology 11/9/2004 Dave Des Marais The Mars Exploration Rover Mission 11/2/2004 James Murray The Suboxic Zone in the Black Sea 10/26/2004 Walter Harris In the rearview mirror: Studying the role of comets in the formation and ongoing evolution of a planetary system 12/9/2003 Steven Benner Weird Life 11/18/2003 Peter Ward Why there were dinosaurs; Why there are birds 10/14/2003 Jim Kasting Methane greenhouses and anti-greenhouses on the early Earth 5/27/2003 Robert Blankenship The transition from anoxygenic to oxygenic photosynthesis and how it changed the Earth 5/20/2003 Roger Buick A Subsurface Biota in the Archean? 4/29/2003 Tori Hoehler Energetic habitability: Boundary conditions for life-as-we-know-it 4/22/2003 Jack Farmer Microbial biosedimentology of some extreme terrestrial environments with implications for the exploration for extraterrestrial life 4/15/2003 Geoff Garrison Geochemical Seasonality in a Unique Aquatic Environment: Who needs oxygen, anyway?

Special Events

DATE PRESENTER TITLE PODCAST 4/24/2012 Daiki Horikawa UV Radiation Tolerance of Tardigrades 10/17/2011 Eric Boyd Integrating Geochemistry and (Meta)genomics in the Geothermal Springs in Yellowstone National Park: Mapping the Functional Limits of Life in Early Earth Analog Environments 9/20/2011 Carl Pilcher Explorer, Nobel Laureate, Astrobiologist: Things you Never Knew About Barry Blumberg Download 8/11/2011 NAI Students GSFC Summer Student Presentations 8/12/2010 NAI Students GSFC Summer Student Presentations 7/12/2010 Oleg Abramov Impact Bombardments on Early Earth and Mars: Implications for Habitability 4/12/2010 Jennifer Biddle The Deep Biosphere as seen through Massively Parallel Sequencing 8/5/2009 NAI Students GSFC Summer Student Presentations 8/6/2008 NAI Students GSFC Summer Student Presentations Download 8/1/2007 NAI Students Summer Student Presentations Download

NAI Team Overview

DATE PRESENTER TITLE PODCAST 4/29/2009 NAI Central Team Overview: NAI Central 4/27/2009 Douglas Whittet Team Overview: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Download 4/22/2009 Karen Meech Team Overview: University of Hawaii Download 4/20/2009 Roger Summons Team Overview: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Download 4/15/2009 Michael Mumma Team Overview: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Download 4/13/2009 Victoria Meadows Team Overview: VPL @ University of Washington Download 4/6/2009 Christopher House Team Overview: Penn State University Download 4/1/2009 Loren Williams Team Overview: Georgia Institute of Technology Download 3/30/2009 John Peters Team Overview: Montana State University Download 3/18/2009 Clark Johnson Team Overview: University of Wisconsin Download 3/16/2009 Ariel Anbar Team Overview: Arizona State University Download 3/11/2009 Mark Allen Team Overview: JPL Titan Download 3/9/2009 Isik Kanik Team Overview: JPL Icy Worlds Download 2/25/2009 David Des Marais Team Overview: NASA Ames Research Center Download 2/23/2009 George Cody Team Overview: Carnegie Institution of Washington Download

Other

DATE PRESENTER TITLE PODCAST 8/18/2006 NAI Students Summer Student Seminar Series 1/9/2004 Various Astrobiology Graduate Conference Webcast 3 1/9/2004 Various Astrobiology Graduate Conference Webcast 4 1/8/2004 Various Astrobiology Graduate Conference Webcast 1 1/8/2004 Various Astrobiology Graduate Conference Webcast 2 12/18/2003 Anatoli Pavlov Age of liquid water on Mars and Martian bugs on Earth?! Where to look for Martian life? 11/1/2002 Peter Jenniskens An Astrobiology Mission to Explore the 2002 Leonid Storm