Astronomy on Tap Fly-By in Providence, RI

There will be a special Astronomy on Tap event featuring NASA’s Search for Life on May 8th at Moniker Brewery in Providence, Rhode Island (during ABSciCon)! If you are in the area, come learn about how astrobiologists search for signs of life in our solar system and the universe. This event is led by NASA’s Research Coordination Network for Life Detection (NFoLD) and University of Washington researchers and will feature a panel discussion and audience Q&A session with Dr. Heather Graham, Dr. Ricardo Arévalo, Dr. Kevin Hand, and Dr. Caleb Scharf! Read about each of our featured speakers below:

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Heather Graham is an organic geochemist with a profound curiosity about the natural world, the history of life, the vast connections between biological and abiotic systems, and what evolution can tell us about our future. Graham’s research group at Goddard Space Flight Center develops life detection tools and techniques that focus on “agnostic biosignature” methods to identify evidence of living systems that may not share our biochemistry.

Ricardo Arévalo is an associate professor at the University of Maryland who is interested in geochemistry and mission-oriented planetary science. He is known for making mission ready laser- based mass spectrometry instruments to characterize and identify organic molecules on the next life detection missions.

Kevin Hand is a planetary scientist and leader of the Ocean Worlds Laboratory at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He is interested in the physics and chemistry of icy moons and ocean worlds in our solar system. He is also the Pre-Project scientist for the Europa Lander Mission Concept, which may one day explore the icy moon of Jupiter.

Caleb Scharf is the Senior Scientist for Astrobiology at the NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. Before joining NASA he was Director of Astrobiology at Columbia University in New York. His research interests span exoplanetary science and astrobiology, and he is a recovering astrophysicist who also writes a lot of popular science, ranging from articles in Scientific American, The New Yorker, and Nautilus, to books that have been translated into over a dozen languages.