3-5 APRIL 2000

NASA/AMES RESEARCH CENTER

Abstract deadline: February 11, 2000

For more information: see http://astrobiology.arc.nasa.gov

The First Annual Astrobiology Science Conference will be held at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, on 3-5 April 2000. The purpose of the conference is to bring together scientists working in disciplines that contribute to astrobiology in a way that will facilitate interdisciplinary interaction and communication. Unlike a number of recent planning workshops, the emphasis here will be on new and recent research results.

The goals of the conference are:

  • To provide a forum at which state-of-the-art science results in the broad field of astrobiology can be presented and discussed among experts.
  • To allow researchers in fields that represent components of astrobiology to become acquainted with the science and scientists that make up the entire field.
  • To begin to build an astrobiology community that can bring everybody together.

To achieve these goals, we are circulating this announcement to as wide a distribution as possible, in order to encourage participation in the following areas:

  • Interstellar and interplanetary prebiotic chemistry
  • Origin and evolution of life on Earth
  • Life in extreme environments
  • Environmental requirements for life elsewhere
  • Possible habitats elsewhere in our solar system
  • Extrasolar planets-occurrence and formation
  • Co-evolution of planets and life
  • Biomarkers-our solar system and extrasolar planets
  • Extraterrestrial intelligence
  • Spacecraft missions and technology in the search for life
  • Philosophical and societal aspects of astrobiology
  • The future of terrestrial life in space

(Note that this list is meant to include examples showing the breadth of astrobiology, and is not meant to be exclusive of potential topics.)

Format of conference:

The conference will include invited review and synthesis papers, contributed oral presentations, and contributed poster presentations. Review talks will provide context for the conference, while the contributed papers should be primarily new and exciting results. We will endeavor to schedule as many oral talks as possible. Specific blocks of time will be set aside to allow viewing posters and informal discussion.

The conference will begin Monday morning and will run through 5 p.m. on Wednesday. In addition, there will be a welcoming reception on Sunday evening, 2 April. Make your travel plans accordingly.

To submit an abstract:

Abstracts should be submitted electronically using the website form or by email directly to abscicon@mail.arc.nasa.gov no later than Feb. 11, 2000. Abstracts are limited to 400 words, and a copy of all abstracts will be made available electronically and distributed at the conference.

Abstracts should be submitted in straight text format (ascii)-no formatting, encoding, or attachments. The title should be in all capital letters, followed by authors and affiliations including email addresses in mixed case (capital and lowercase). Begin the abstract following a blank line. If you have any questions or problems, please contact Rho Christensen at 650-604-2476 or by email rchristensen@mail.arc.nasa.gov.

For more information:

For details regarding nearby hotels and motels, please see our web page at http://astrobiology.arc.nasa.gov. Special arrangements for lodging have been made at several area hotels. Logistics will be posted during the second week of January.

Registration:

The registration form, information about fees for registration, and directions for payment will be on the website at http://astrobiology.arc.nasa.gov. (Note that fees can be paid at the conference, even though you register in advance.)

We are requesting that all US citizens and green card holders register prior to March 15, 2000-although late registration provisions have been made for US citizens and green card holders. We are requesting that foreign national participants register by February 24, 2000. Registration for foreign national participants cannot be received later than February 24, 2000, in order for us to meet the NASA security and clearance requirements Directions and requirements for badging for all participants are stated on the website registration form.

Next announcement:

We expect the tentative program to be available shortly, and a final announcement to be distributed about a month prior to the meeting.

Sincerely,

Bruce Jakosky, University of Colorado at Boulder, Chair of Science Organizing Committee

Lynn Rothschild, NASA Ames Research Center, Chair of Local Organizing Committee

David Morrison, NASA Ames Research Center, Convenor

Baruch Blumberg, NASA Ames Research Center, Convenor

Members of Scientific Organizing Committee:

  • Sidney Altman, Yale University email: sidney.altman@yale.edu
  • Christopher Chyba, SETI Institute email: chyba@seti.org,
  • Kathryn Clark, NASA Headquarters email: kclark@mail.hq.nasa.gov
  • Pamela Conrad, NASA JPL email: conrad@jpl.nasa.gov
  • David Deamer, UC Santa Cruz email: deamer@hydrogen.ucsc.edu
  • David DesMarais, NASA Ames email: ddesmarais@mail.arc.nasa.gov
  • Steven J. Gould, Harvard University
  • Lynn Harper, NASA Ames email: lharper@mail.arc.nasa.gov
  • John Hines, NASA Ames email: jhines@mail.arc.nasa.gov
  • Gerda Horneck, DLR FF-ME, Radiation Biology email: gerda.horneck@dlr.de
  • Bruce Jakosky, U Colorado email: jakosky@argyre.colorado.edu
  • Jack Kaye, NASA Headquarters email: jkaye@mail.hq.nasa.gov
  • Geoff Marcy, UC Berkeley email: gmarcy@stars.sfsu.edu
  • Sir Robert May, Office of Science and Technology
  • Juan Perez-Mercader, Centro de Astrobiologia email: mercader@estrella.laeff.esa.es
  • Michael Meyer, NASA Headquarters email: mmeyer@mail.hq.nasa.gov
  • Harold A. Mooney, Stanford University email: hmooney@jasper.standord.edu
  • Richard Roberts, New England Biolabs email: roberts@neb.com
  • Kathie Olsen, NASA Chief Scientist email: kolsen@mail.hq.nasa.gov
  • Maxine F. Singer, Carnagie Institute of Washington email: msinger@pst.ciw.edu
  • Joan Vernikos, NASA Headquarters email: jverniko@mail.hq.nasa.gov
  • Peter Ward, U Washington email: ward@geology.washington.edu

Members of Local Organizing Committee:

  • Mel Averner, Fundamental Biology Program Office email: maverner@mail.arc.nasa.gov
  • Rho Christensen, NASA Astrobiology Institute email: rchristensen@mail.arc.nasa.gov
  • Max Bernstein, SETI Institute email: mbernstein@mail.arc,nasa,gov
  • Pam Davoren, NASA Astrobiology Integration Office email: pdavoren@mail.arc.nasa.gov
  • Emily Holton, NASA Ames email: eholton@mail.arc.nasa.gov
  • Laurence Lasher, NASA Ames email: llasher@mail.arc.nasa.gov
  • Lynn Rothschild, NASA Ames email: lrothschild@mail.arc.nasa.gov
  • Greg Schmidt, NASA Astrobiology Integration Office email: gschmidt@mail.arc.nasa.gov
  • Woody Sullivan, University of Washington email: woody@astro.washington.edu
  • Aaron Zent, NASA Ames email: azent@mail.arc.nasa