The Astrobiology Science Conference brings together hundreds of scientists from around the world every two years, and as it prepares to open Sunday in Providence, two University of Rhode Island scientists are the lead organizers of the nation\u2019s largest conference focused on the study of the origin, evolution, and distribution of life in the universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than 800 attendees are expected for AbSciCon 2024<\/a>, which runs May 5-10 at the Rhode Island Convention Center in downtown Providence. The conference, hosted by NASA, attracts an interdisciplinary group of scientists that make up the astrobiology community to share new research and insights, collaborate, and discuss the future of the field. While most conference sessions \u2013 plenary talks, research presentations and poster sessions \u2013 are open only to attendees, there are numerous astrobiology-themed events<\/a> that are free and open to the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n URI GSO professor Art Spivack<\/a> and CELS professor Dawn Cardace<\/a> are organizers for the conference. And other URI community members will be presenting at the conference. GSO Dean Paula Bontempi <\/a>will give a plenary talk on the conference\u2019s closing day, and doctoral students Cybele Collins and Gladys Adenikinju will discuss their research during poster sessions.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNASA has this conference to specifically bring together all the disciplines that contribute to astrobiology,\u201d said Cardace, professor of geosciences. \u201cThere are over 5,000 planets orbiting other stars way beyond our solar system. A healthy slice of those actually occur in the habitable zone of their parent star. This isn\u2019t a purely academic endeavor anymore. Now we are able to visualize planetary atmospheres and screen them for biosignature gasses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is the major conference that brings together all areas of astrobiology to one venue,\u201d added Spivack. \u201cPart of it is a cross-fertilization between researchers in the different related fields. It ultimately informs how we formulate questions that we want to resolve and what missions NASA wants to support.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Across URI, NASA-related science is \u201cbraided\u201d into programs such as oceanography, the College of the Environment Life Sciences, and engineering\u2014even among faculty who look at the ethical and philosophical elements of \u201cdoing science beyond our own boundaries,\u201d said Cardace, a former NASA postdoctoral fellow at NASA Ames Research Center in California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cardace\u2019s research has been funded in part by the NASA Astrobiology Institute since 2010. More recently, she, along with fellow URI researchers Soni Pradhanang and Serena Moseman-Valtierra, has been exploring methane emission dynamics in ultramafic rocks, which are common to Earth and Mars. The three-year project is supported by a $735,000 grant from NASA EPSCoR (Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spivack\u2019s research focuses on understanding and quantifying the metabolism and extent of microbial life in the seafloor. In 2001, Spivack and fellow oceanography professor Steven D\u2019Hondt formed URI\u2019s NASA Astrobiology Institute<\/a>. The five-year grant enabled research that used seafloor studies as analogs for life on other planets, and supported the creation of an Honors Program course on life in the universe, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bontempi, dean of the GSO since September 2020, is a former acting deputy director at NASA\u2019s Earth Science Division in the Science Mission Directorate and was a physical scientist and program manager for ocean biography and biogeochemistry at NASA Headquarters for more than 16 years. She is currently a member of NASA\u2019s study team on unidentified aerial phenomena.<\/a> On May 10, she will deliver a plenary talk on \u201cOcean Worlds Near and Far.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe\u2019s the perfect person to give a plenary because she works in ocean-world environments,\u201d said Cardace, who organized the conference\u2019s science program. \u201cShe knows an enormous amount about the terrestrial ocean. So many worlds out there beyond our solar system are thought to have oceans, whether they be liquid on the surface or under an ice shell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Adenikinju, a Ph.D. student in biological and environmental sciences, environmental and earth sciences specialization, in CELS, and a research assistant for Cardace, will present her research on iron geomicrobiology, or how life uses iron in diverse environments on Earth and other planets. Collins, a Ph.D. candidate studying biogeochemical cycles and research assistant in Cardace\u2019s lab, will discuss her work on the carbon cycle, looking at two very different study sites \u2013 salt marshes and ophiolites. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPresenting work is a part of a larger dialogue with the community,\u201d said Collins. \u201cIt will be exciting to meet people whose work I admire, and that includes most of the people at the conference. I\u2019ve felt welcomed by the astrobiology community before I even realized what it was. At first I tried research areas that I thought were more practical, but many aspects of astrobiological research are very practical. It\u2019s about looking at Earth in terms of what we have and what is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n