“The NAI successfully reached an important milestone today
with the competition for the original NAI membership,” said
Dr. Edward Weiler, NASA’s Associate Administrator of Space
Science. “The quality of the proposals and stiff competition
demonstrated the scientific community’s enthusiasm for the
Astrobiology Institute.”

“This is an ongoing experiment in
collaboration across disciplines and distance,” said Dr.
Michael Meyer, astrobiology senior scientist at NASA
Headquarters, Washington.

The 12 newly selected teams, of which six are founding
members, join four NAI lead teams selected in 2001. “With
this group of 16 teams, NAI’s efforts reach from the Earth’s
deep subsurface to the stars,” said Dr. Rosalind Grymes,
acting director of the NAI. “We look to the near-term future
of solar system exploration as well as to the distant past of
planet Earth,” she said.

The following are new team lead institutions, principal investigators and
the titles of their proposed research:

NASA Ames Research Center: Dr. David Des Marais leads a
team that will investigate questions dealing with the origin,
evolution, and future of habitable environments and life,
including research on planetary formation and habitability,
the nature of the first cells, atmospheric biosignatures
that might allow detection of living planets beyond the solar
system, and the ability of terrestrial life to survive in
space. NASA ARC is a returning founding team of the NAI.
Proposal Title: Linking Our Origins to Our Future

Carnegie Institution of Washington: Dr. Sean Solomon leads
a team that will carry out experimental and theoretical studies
of chemical and physical evolution in prebiotic environments,
including discovery and characterization of extrasolar planets
and study of the life to be found in extreme environments
on Earth. Carnegie Institution of Washington is a returning
founding team of the NAI.
Proposal Title: Astrobiological Pathways: From the Interstellar
Medium, Through Planetary Systems, to the Emergence and Detection
of Life.

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center: Dr. Michael Mumma leads
a team that will focus on the early environments of the Earth,
before and during the period when life arose, including the
origin of the Earth and other planets and investigation of
sources of water and of the prebiotic chemicals on the ancient
Earth.
Proposal Title: Origin and Evolution of Organics in Planetary
Systems

Indiana University (Bloomington): Dr. Lisa Pratt leads a
team that will carry out research on subsurface microbial
communities that have been sequestered from the surface for
hundreds of millions of years, using what they learn about
such communities on Earth to develop approaches to the search
for similar communities on Mars.
Proposal Title: Indiana-Princeton-Tennessee Astrobiology
Institute (IPTAI): Detection of Biosustainable Energy and
Nutrient Cycling in the Deep Subsurface of Earth and Mars.

Marine Biological Laboratory (Woods Hole): Dr. Mitchell
Sogin leads a team that will study early microbial metabolic
pathways, ancient divergences between the three domains of
life and the origins of complex systems using genomic and
environmental analyses to understand the evolution of life
on Earth and to inform the interpretation of remote sensing
data from Mars and other potentially habitable planets. Marine
Biological Laboratory is a returning founding team of the
NAI.
Proposal Title: From Early Biospheric Metabolisms to the
Evolution of Complex Systems

SETI
Institute: Dr. Christopher Chyba leads a team that will investigate
a wide range of questions in astrobiology, including the
origin of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere, a comparison
of nitrogen and carbon cycles on Earth and Mars, the possible
habitability of Jupiter’s moon Europa, and the prospects
for finding habitable worlds around cool stars.
Proposal Title: Planetary Biology, Evolution and Intelligence

Pennsylvania State University: Dr. Hiroshi Ohmoto leads
a team focused on questions of the origin and evolution of
life on Earth, including study of new drill cores of ancient
rocks, investigation of biosignatures of microbes on the
early Earth, atmospheric evolution on earthlike planets,
and research on marine ecosystems that may provide analogs
of life in the ancient oceans. Pennsylvania State University
is a returning founding team of the NAI.
Proposal Title: Evolution of a Habitable Planet

University of Arizona: Dr. Neville Woolf leads a team that
focuses on the astronomical study of origins, including the
organic chemistry of clouds of gas and dust in space, the
origin of stars and planetary systems, the nature of possible
biomarkers on other planets, and comparisons between our
solar system and other exoplanetary systems.
Proposal Title: An Astronomical Search for the Essential
Ingredients for Life: Placing our Habitable System in Context

University of California at Berkeley: Dr. Jillian Banfield
leads a team that will carry out comparative studies of Earth
and Mars, focusing on evolution of the hydrospheres on both
planets, possible biospheres and biosignatures on Mars, technology
for robotic sampling and surface studies, and selection of
optimal landing sites for future Mars exploration.
Proposal Title: BIOspheres of Mars: Ancient and Recent Studies

University of California at Los Angeles: Dr. Edward Young
leads a broadly multidisciplinary team that will study exoplanetary
systems, the nature of Earth’s oldest rocks, the identification
of the earliest fossil microbes, links between planetary
orbits and habitability, and the complexity of life in a
planetary context. University of California at Los Angeles
is a returning founding team of the NAI.
Proposal Title: From Stars to Genes: An Integrated Study
of the Prospects for Life in the Cosmos

University of Colorado (Boulder): Dr. Bruce Jakosky leads
a team that will research a variety of topics, including
the nature of the “RNA world” and of alternative
models for early life, tracing Earth’s biogeochemical
evolution, studies of the habitability of Mars and of Jupiter’s
moon Europa, and the development of new technology for future
flight missions. University of Colorado (Boulder) is a returning
founding team of the NAI.
Proposal Title: University of Colorado Center for Astrobiology

University of Hawaii (Manoa): Dr. Karen Meech leads a team
of researchers in planetary science, geology, and marine
science focused on the theme of water and life, including
the origin of water on the early Earth, the habitability
of ice-covered regions on Earth and Mars, aquatic habitats
in the deep ocean, and the development of life-detection
instrumentation for flight missions.
Proposal Title: The Origin, History, and Distribution of
Water and its Relation to Life in the Universe

The NAI, founded in 1997, is a partnership between NASA, 16
major U.S. teams and five international consortia. NAI’s goal
is to promote, conduct, and lead integrated multidisciplinary
astrobiology research and to train a new generation of
astrobiology researchers.