This Echo is READ ONLY !   NO Un-Authorized Messages Please!
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Donald Savage
Headquarters, Washington                 June 24, 2003
(Phone: 202/358-1547)

John Bluck
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
(Phone: 650/604-5026)

RELEASE: 03-208

ASTROBIOLOGY INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES NEW TEAMS

     NASA today announced 12 new teams would join the NASA 
Astrobiology Institute (NAI), a national and international 
research consortium that studies the origin, evolution, 
distribution and future of life on Earth and in the universe. 

The institutional awards begin in fall 2003, when current 
agreements with the NAI's 11 founding lead teams conclude. 
NAI team awards are for five years, with annual reviews, at 
an average annual funding level of one million dollars. 
Funding supports interdisciplinary research in conjunction 
with professional, educational, and public outreach 
activities, coordinated through NAI's offices at NASA's Ames 
Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.

"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. 

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

* Carnegie Institution of Washington: Dr. Sean Solomon, 
"Astrobiological Pathways: From the Interstellar Medium, 
Through Planetary Systems, to the Emergence and Detection of 
Life"

* Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind.: Prof. Lisa Pratt, 
"Indiana-Princeton-Tennessee Astrobiology Institute: 
Detection of Biosustainable Energy and Nutrient Cycling in 
the Deep Subsurface of Earth and Mars"
 
* Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Mass.: Dr. 
Mitchell Sogin, "From Early Biospheric Metabolisms to the 
Evolution of Complex Systems"

* SETI Institute, Mountain View, Calif.: Prof. Christopher 
Chyba, "Planetary Biology, Evolution and Intelligence"

* NASA Ames Research Center: Dr. David DesMarais, "Linking 
Our Origins to Our Future"

* NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.: Dr. 
Michael Mumma, "Origin and Evolution of Organics in Planetary 
Systems"

* Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa.: Prof. 
Hiroshi Ohmoto, "Evolution of a Habitable Planet"

* University of Arizona, Tucson: Prof. Neville Woolf, "An 
Astronomical Search for the Essential Ingredients for Life: 
Placing our Habitable System in Context"

* University of California at Los Angeles: Prof. Edward 
Young, "From Stars to Genes: An Integrated Study of the 
Prospects for Life in the Cosmos"

* University of California at Berkeley: Prof. Jillian 
Banfield, "BIOspheres of Mars: Ancient and Recent Studies"

* University of Colorado, Boulder, Colo.: Prof. Bruce 
Jakosky, "University of Colorado Center for Astrobiology"

* University of Hawaii, Manoa: Prof. Karen Meech, "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. For more information about the NAI 
on the Internet, visit:

http://nai.arc.nasa.gov/

-end-

 - END OF FILE -
==========

@Message posted automagically by IMTHINGS POST 1.30
---