News
Keynote Speakers
Dr. Claire Cousins, Dr. Susan Conway, Prof. Martyn Tranter and Dr. Ruth-Sophie Taubner have been confirmed as keynote speakers for ASB8. See below for information on their background and expertise.
Dr. Claire Cousins
Claire is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) within the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of St. Andrews, following on from a 5 year Royal Society of Edinburgh Research Fellowship. She is the PI of the Molecular Geobiology Laboratory and a member of the St Andrews Centre for Exoplanet Science. Her research uses planetary field analogues and experimental research to develop science and technology to form the basis of current and future robotic space missions. She is also interested in volcanic geothermal systems and how volcanism (including cryovolcanism) both drives and preserves microbial life within our Solar System. Regarding instrument development, she is working on developing multispectral and UV fluorescence imaging systems that can be used to detect mineral deposits and biosignatures. This includes testing ExoMars instrument emulators on Mars analogue terrains to enable ExoMars scientists to analyse the multispectral elements of PanCam in conjunction with the Infrared Spectrometer for ExoMars.
Prof. Martyn Tranter
Martyn is Professor in Polar Biogeochemistry within the School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol. He has had a long term research interest in the biogeochemistry of subglacial environments under glaciers and ice sheets. He has been involved in many of the pivotal discoveries of glacier and ice sheet biogeochemistry, including the first documentation of microbial life and activity under glaciers, and leading a major NERC grant into the effects of microbial growth under the albedo of the Greenland ice sheet. He has been involved in both UK led and US led drilling missions to sample the microbial community and related biogeochemistry beneath the Antarctic ice sheet, including the successful drilling and sampling of subglacial Lake Mercer at the start of this year.
Dr. Susan Conway
Dr. Susan Conway is a research scientist with the CNRS (Centre National de Recherche Scientifique) and works at the Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique within the University of Nantes, France. She studied Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge, and converted fully to planetary science during her PhD at the Open University, UK. Her research falls under the general theme of planetary geomorphology and specifically focusses on the use of remote sensing and quantitative topographic analysis, alongside laboratory simulation work, to understand the role of water and other volatiles in recent landscape evolution on Mars and other planetary bodies.
Dr. Ruth-Sophie Taubner
Ruth is a research scientist within the Department of Ecogenomics and Systems Biology at the University of Vienna, Austria. She studied Astronomy at the University of Vienna, but moved to Microbiology during her PhD studies. Her research has focused so far on the habitability of icy moons, especially Enceladus. Her PhD thesis dealt with the possibility of methanogenic life on this icy world. Currently she is also working on Lokiarchaeota, another very interesting lineage of Archaea in the context of the emergence of complex eukaryotic life forms on Earth.
Last modified: Mon, 04 Mar 2019 10:44:29 GMT
