6 Universities Join NASA Astrobiology Institute

• By David Nagel
• 10/03/08

Research teams from six universities have been selected by NASA to become members of its Astrobiology Institute with the aim of exploring the "origins, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe." Teams were each awarded five-year grants, averaging $7 million each, according to NASA.

Universities participating in the Astrobiology Institute include:

• Arizona State University, which will be involved in developing new criteria for characterizing "life's elemental requirements";
• Carnegie Institution of Washington, whose team will concentrate on the chemical and physical evolution of life;
• Georgia Institute of Technology, which will take on the modest task of "rewinding the tape of life to before the last universal common ancestor of all living organisms" to try to answer questions about the earliest living systems;
• University of Hawaii, whose researchers will focus on water and its relation to life in the universe;
• Pennsylvania State University, which will "develop novel approaches to detecting and characterizing life"; and
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, which will take an interdisciplinary approach to uncovering chemical processes that lead to life.

"The new teams provide a superb foundation for the institute as it enters its second decade," said Jim Green, Planetary Science Division director at NASA, in a statement released this week. "They bring together the many disciplines necessary for a comprehensive interdisciplinary approach to studying life in the universe."

Four other teams have also been added to the Astrobiology Institute: one from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, one from NASA's Ames Research Center, and two teams from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

"The research of these new teams reflects the increasing maturity of astrobiology," said NASA Astrobiology Institute Director Carl Pilcher of Ames, also in a statement released Thursday. "They are focused on fundamental questions of life in the universe, but their work has implications for all of science. The research of these teams, together with that of the four continuing institute teams, will bridge the basic science of astrobiology to NASA's current and planned space exploration missions."

Teams from MIT, Montana State University, University of Washington, and University of Wisconsin-Madison will continue to participate in the Astrobiology Institute. Further information about the institute can be found here.