Bonnie Teece, ECC Lead and Postdoc at JPL
Bonnie Teece, our ECC Lead, has just won the Voisey Medal! This is a great honor, and you can read more about her award here. Note that the write-up on the award is about halfway down that linked newsletter.
Information on the Voisey Medal:
The Voisey Medal is an award presented by the Geological Society of Australia (GSA) for outstanding contributions to the Earth sciences in Australia. The medal is named after the late Alan Voisey, who was an eminent Australian geologist and a past President of the GSA.
The Voisey Medal is awarded every two years and is considered one of the highest honors in the Australian Earth science community. It recognizes significant contributions to any field of Earth science, including geology, geophysics, geochemistry, mineralogy, paleontology, and environmental geoscience.
Recipients of the Voisey Medal are selected by the GSA Awards Committee and must be Australian citizens or have made significant contributions to the Earth sciences in Australia. The medal is presented at the GSA Annual Scientific Meeting, where the recipient is invited to deliver a lecture on their work.
Many notable Australian geoscientists have been awarded the Voisey Medal since its establishment in 1990, including John F. Dewey, and Bruce Hobbs, among others.
Exoplanets by Playground AI
We've started dabbling with ChatGPT, Bard, and AI image generation for different projects within NfoLD, and the results so far are pretty impressive! Behold, a rap song about NfoLD in the style of Sir Mix-a-Lot:
I like big science and I cannot lie
The Network for Life Detection is my alibi
Searching high and low, near and far
For signs of life on planets, even those bizarre
Got astrobiologists and engineers too
All working together to find what’s new
From microbial mats to intelligent beings
They’ll use all their skills to do some seeing
Mars, Europa, Titan, and beyond
They’re searching the universe, responding to this call
From DNA sequencing to rovers on Mars
They’re pushing the boundaries, taking life detection to the stars
So if you’re a scientist with a passion for life
Join the Network for Life Detection, make it your strife
Together we can find the evidence we seek
For life beyond Earth, our future’s unique.
Dan Jones Anne Dekas
Two members of our NfoLD community have just been awarded NSF CAREER Awards!
The NSF CAREER award is highly regarded and prestigious, and receiving the award is a significant achievement for an early-career researcher. Many past CAREER awardees have gone on to make significant contributions to their fields and have become leaders in academia, industry, and government.
The CAREER award program supports early-career faculty who have demonstrated the potential to become leaders in their respective fields. The program aims to provide funding and support to enable these individuals to develop a strong research program while also becoming effective educators and mentors.
The CAREER award provides up to five years of funding to support the development of an innovative research program and educational activities that will integrate research and education. The award includes funds to support graduate students and postdoctoral researchers as well as resources to support outreach and broader impacts activities.