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Kathleen Burton                                   Jan. 30, 2003
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Phone: 650/604-1731 or 604-9000
E-mail: kburton{at}mail.arc.nasa.gov

RELEASE: 03-09AR 

NOTE TO EDITORS AND NEWS DIRECTORS: You are invited to attend the NASA 
Astrobiology Institute 2003 general meeting on Feb. 10-12 from 8:30 
a.m. to 6 p.m. daily at Arizona State University in Tempe (ASU). No 
registration fee is required, but all members of the news media must 
check in at the press room in order to receive their badges. The press 
room is located on the second level of the ASU Memorial Union in the 
Gila Room. 

NASA ASTROBIOLOGY INSTITUTE TO HOST GENERAL MEETING FEB. 10-12

Nearly 500 scientists from around the world will meet in early 
February to discuss the latest research on the origin, distribution 
and future of life in the universe at the 2003 general meeting of the 
NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) to be held at Arizona State 
University.

The goal of the meeting, which celebrates the NAI's first five years 
of research and discovery, is to encompass all aspects of NAI's 
mission. The NAI mission includes generating scientific results and 
new directions, developing collaborations, furthering the use of its 
technology infrastructure, strengthening its contribution to NASA 
missions, fostering the next generation of astrobiologists and 
advancing its education and outreach efforts.

"At the NAI, we ask universal questions of science on a universal 
scale," said NAI Acting Director Dr. Rosalind Grymes. "These aspects 
of NAI, and of astrobiology itself, are reflected in the theme 
selected for this year's conference,  'Living Links through Time and 
Space:  Meeting the Challenges of Interdisciplinary Science'," she 
said.

"Arizona State University is pleased to host the 2003 general meeting 
of the NASA Astrobiology Institute," said astrobiologist Jack Farmer, 
principal investigator of the institute's lead team at ASU, an NAI 
charter member and the program organizing committee's co-chair. 
"Though the nature of the science of astrobiology is highly 
collaborative on a day-to-day basis, it's a rare opportunity to be 
able to meet face-to-face with nearly 500 of our colleagues from 
around the world and share research at the leading edge of this 
dynamic field." 

Highlights of the conference include a public lecture on Feb. 11 at 
7:30 p.m. by Dr. Antonio Lazcano, president of the International 
Society for the Study of the Origin of Life (ISSOL), who is based at 
the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM). Also featured will 
be a closing lecture on Feb. 12 at 5:30 p.m. by Dr. Donald Johanson, 
one of the world's leading paleoanthropologists.  In 1974 in Ethopia, 
Johanson discovered a partial skeleton of a female 
'australopithecine,' a hominid fossil, which became known as Lucy, our 
oldest, most complete human ancestor. 

A series of plenary lectures will include presentations by Dr. 
Christopher Chyba of the Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, 
and Dr. Alan Dressler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, who 
will discuss "Life Beyond the Solar System: If, Where, When and How?" 
More than 300 oral and poster presentations also are scheduled, which 
span the breadth of astrobiology.  In addition, special research 
sessions have been organized in the areas of:

* Astrobiological Perspectives in Exploring the Solar System
* Evolutionary Genomics
* Searching for Life Outside the Solar System
* Life in Extreme Environments
* Advances in Ecological Genomics
* Early Biosphere Evolution

To register, news media should see:
  http://nai.arc.nasa.gov/institute/general_meeting_2003/

and click on 'press information' and 'registration.' A meeting 
schedule and abstracts also are available at this site.

The NASA Astrobiology Institute is composed of over 700 researchers 
located at more than 130 research institutions across the United 
States. Its central offices are located at NASA Ames Research Center, 
in the heart of Silicon Valley, California.  Additional information 
about the NAI can be found at its Web site:  http://nai.arc.nasa.gov

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