NASA Astrobiology Institute: The NASA Astrobiology Institute
congratulates two new members of the National Academy of Sciences
(NAS). Dr. John P. Grotzinger of the NAI Harvard lead team and Dr.
Gerald Schubert of the NAI University of California Los Angeles lead
team join 13 other NAI researchers as members of the academy. Only 72
new members of the NAS were selected this year. Election to
membership is considered one of the highest honors that can be
accorded a U.S. scientist or engineer.
NASA Scientist Elected: Dr. Lynn Rothschild of NASA Ames Research
Center has been elected president of the Society of Protozoologists.
The society has an international membership of nearly 1,000. Founded
in 1947, the society covers all aspects of protists (unicellular
eukaryotic organisms, ranging from the amoeba and paramecium to the
causative agents for malaria, giardiasis and sleeping sickness).
Protists are critical to modern biology in fields from aging research
and photosynthesis to parasitology and AIDS. They played a pivotal
role in evolutionary biology as the first organisms with nuclei, and
as such gave rise to animals, plants and fungi.
Scientist Chosen for Mars Rover Mission: Dr. Nathalie A. Cabrol, a
SETI scientist based at NASA Ames, was selected to study sedimentary
processes resulting from water activity at the sites to be studied by
the 2003 Mars Exploration Rovers. She will join the Athena science
team, led by Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University. The first rover
is due to touch down on Mars in January 2004. Cabrol’s primary role
will be to identify landforms and deposits from images taken by Mars
Global Surveyor cameras and to recommend optimal rover traverses.
For more information, contact Kathleen Burton, 650/604-1731 or
650/604-9000 or e-mail: kburton@mail.arc.nasa.gov
