SETI public: Fw: NASA ASTROBIOLOGY INSTITUTE TO HOST GENERAL MEETING FEB. 10-12

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----- Original Message -----
From: NASANEWS@Ames
Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2003 6:29 PM
To: ames-releases_at_lists.arc.nasa.gov
Subject: NASA ASTROBIOLOGY INSTITUTE TO HOST GENERAL MEETING FEB. 10-12

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

-end-

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-- 
Kathleen M. Burton
Public Affairs Officer, Astrobiology & Space Science
NASA Ames Research Center
Moffett Field, CA 94035
phone 650 604-1731
fax 650 604-3990
email Kathleen.M.Burton_at_nasa.gov

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