The American Geophysical Union Sept. 13 that five 天美影视传媒 faculty members have been elected as new fellows, representing the departments of astronomy, Earth and space sciences, oceanography, global health, and environmental and occupational health sciences.

The Fellows program recognizes AGU members who have made exceptional contributions to Earth and space sciences through a breakthrough, discovery or innovation in their field. The five UW honorees are among 54 people from around the world in the 2023 Class of Fellows. AGU, the world’s largest Earth and space sciences association, annually recognizes a select number of individuals nominated by their peers for its highest honors. Since 1962, the AGU Union Fellows Committee has selected less than 0.1% of members as new fellows.

Also honored by AGU this year are three UW faculty members, from the departments of Earth and space sciences and atmospheric sciences, who have received other awards.

Here are the UW鈥檚 five new AGU Fellows:

, professor of Earth and space sciences, studies which characteristics of Earth help this planet support life, and whether life might be found on other planets. His work spans astronomy, biology and geology, on planetary environments including Earth, Mars, Venus and icy moons, as well as planets outside this solar system. He is the author of 鈥淎strobiology: A Very Short Introduction鈥� for the layperson and 鈥淎tmospheric Evolution on Inhabited and Lifeless Worlds鈥� for researchers.

, who holds the Karl M. Banse Endowed Professorship in oceanography, explores the limits and ecological contributions of microbial life in deep ocean and polar regions, focusing in recent years on how microbes adapt to the extreme conditions of Arctic sea ice. In addition to a research and teaching career, Deming founded what is now the UW Center for Environmental Genomics and helped establish the nation鈥檚 first graduate training program in astrobiology.

, professor of global health and of environmental and occupational health sciences, has been conducting research on the health risks of climate variability and change for nearly 30 years. She focuses on estimating current and future health risks of climate change, designing adaptation policies and measures to reduce risks in multi-stressor environments, and estimating the health co-benefits of mitigation policies. Ebi is also founding director of the UW , or CHanGE.

, professor of astronomy, is an astrobiologist and planetary astronomer whose research focuses on聽predicting, acquiring and analyzing observations of planetary atmospheres and surfaces. In addition to studying planets within our solar system, she is interested in exoplanets 鈥� those outside the solar system 鈥� and聽how they might reveal the presence of life. With the UW鈥檚 Virtual Planetary Laboratory, she uses models of planets and planet-star interactions to generate plausible planetary environments and spectra for extrasolar terrestrial planets and the early Earth.

, professor and chair of Earth and space sciences, is a geochemist and glaciologist whose research focuses on polar climate and ice sheets in the Arctic and in Antarctica. He is best known for his analyses of Antarctic ice cores using measurements of oxygen and hydrogen in the ice to better understand how climate has varied in the past, over hundreds to thousands of years.

In addition to the newly elected fellows, UW faculty members are also recognized in several subject-specific awards and lectures:

, professor of atmospheric sciences, will deliver the in December at the AGU鈥檚 fall meeting. Alexander studies the relationship between climate change and the chemical composition of the atmosphere. She looks at the pathways by which atmospheric pollutants form, how those chemical pathways can vary, and what that means both for present-day air quality and for the future of climate change.

, research assistant professor of Earth and space sciences, has received the for his research modeling natural disasters using geodesy, or the shape of the Earth鈥檚 surface, and seismology. Crowell pioneered ways to use GPS and related data in earthquake and tsunami early warning systems. He is currently using this data to better understand natural disasters as they unfold and develop a risk-mitigation framework for coastal hazards such as tsunamis.

, research assistant professor of Earth and space sciences, has received the . Journaux uses modeling and experiments to explore the conditions in extreme environments on other planets, and how that might affect their ability to harbor life. He is a member of the science team for NASA鈥檚 upcoming Dragonfly mission, which will characterize the chemistry and habitability of Saturn鈥檚 largest moon, Titan.

, a researcher at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory with an affiliate UW faculty position in oceanography, has received the .

All honorees will be recognized in December at the AGU鈥檚 fall meeting in San Francisco.

In recent years, the idea of life on other planets has become less far-fetched. NASA announced June 27 that it will send a vehicle to , a celestial body known to harbor surface lakes of methane and an ice-covered ocean of water, boosting its chance for supporting life.

On Earth, scientists are studying the most extreme environments to learn how life might exist under completely different settings, like on other planets. A 天美影视传媒 team has been studying the microbes found in “,” trapped layers of sediment with water so salty that it remains liquid at below-freezing temperatures, which may be similar to environments on Mars or other planetary bodies farther from the sun.

At the recent meeting in Bellevue, Washington, researchers presented DNA sequencing and related results to show that brine samples from an Alaskan cryopeg isolated for tens of thousands of years contain thriving bacterial communities. The lifeforms are similar to those found in floating sea ice and in saltwater that flows from glaciers, but display some unique patterns.

“We study really old seawater trapped inside of permafrost for up to 50,000 years, to see how those bacterial communities have evolved over time,” said lead author , a UW doctoral student in oceanography.

Cryopegs were first discovered by geologists in Northern Alaska decades ago. This field site in Utqia摹vik, formerly known as Barrow, was excavated in the 1960s by the U.S. Army’s Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory to explore large wedges of freshwater ice that occur in the permafrost there. Subsurface brine was eventually collected from the site in the 2000s.

“The extreme conditions here are not just the below-zero temperatures, but also the very high salt concentrations,” said , a UW professor of oceanography who studies microbial life in the Arctic Ocean. “One hundred and forty parts per thousand 鈥� 14% 鈥� is a lot of salt. In canned goods that would stop microbes from doing anything. So there can be a preconceived notion that very high salt should not enable active life.”

It’s not fully known how cryopegs form. Scientists believe the layers might be former coastal lagoons stranded during the last ice age, when rain turned to snow and the ocean receded. Moisture evaporated from the abandoned seabed was then covered by permafrost, so the remaining briny water became trapped below a layer of frozen soil.

To access the subsurface liquids, researchers climb about 12 feet down a ladder and then move carefully along a tunnel within the ice. The opening is just a single person wide and is not high enough to stand in, so researchers must crouch and work together to drill during the 4- to 8-hour shifts.

Deming describes it as “exhilarating” because of the possibility for discovery.

Samples collected in the spring of 2017 and 2018, geologically isolated for what researchers believe to be roughly 50,000 years, contain genes from healthy communities of bacteria along with their viruses.

“We’re just discovering that there’s a very robust microbial community, coevolving with viruses, in these ancient buried brines,” Cooper said. “We were quite startled at how dense the bacterial communities are.”

The extreme environments on Earth may be similar to the oceans and ice of other planets, scientist believe.

“The dominant bacterium is Marinobacter,” Deming said. “The name alone tells us that it came from the ocean 鈥� even though it has been in the dark, buried in frozen permafrost for a very long time, it originally came from the marine environment.”

Mars harbored an ocean of water in the past, and our solar system contains at least a half-dozen oceans on other planets and icy moons. Titan, the moon of Saturn that NASA will explore, is rich in various forms of ice. Studying life on Earth in frozen settings that may have similarities can prepare explorers for what kind of life to expect, and how to detect it.

The research was funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to learn how bacteria and viruses coevolve in different marine environments. Other collaborators at UW are , a postdoctoral researcher in Oceanography, Max Showalter, a doctoral student in Oceanography, and , a research scientist in Oceanography.

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For more information, contact Cooper at zcooper@uw.edu or Deming at jdeming@uw.edu.

is the study of life in the universe and of the terrestrial environments and planetary and stellar processes that support it. To study astrobiology is to ask questions that cut across multiple disciplines and could take lifetimes to answer. The field gathers expertise from a host of other disciplines including biology, chemistry, geology, oceanography, atmospheric and Earth science, aeronautical engineering and of course astronomy itself.

These questions also include: What can Earth鈥檚 own species, and its chemical past, tell us about how to spot life elsewhere? How did the first cells arise? Can we map the surfaces of exoplanets? How can we motivate students to be curious about space?

Every two years, researchers gather from around the world to share and discuss their latest findings in a weeklong conference. Called for short, this year鈥檚 conference will be held June 24-28 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Bellevue. It鈥檚 the biggest meeting of astrobiologists in the world and dozens of 天美影视传媒 researchers will attend and participate.

Public attitudes have warmed greatly toward astrobiology in the 21^st century, prompted by exoplanet discoveries and exploration of other worlds in the solar system. Study of extraterrestrial life remains a hopeful science wryly aware that, as an old joke goes, it has yet to prove that its very subject matter exists.

The UW founded its own program in 1999, involving roughly 30 faculty and about as many students a year. “The program is a leader in both training the next generation of astrobiologists and in fundamental astrobiology research,” said , UW professor of astronomy and principal investigator for the UW-based , which explores computer models of planetary environments and will be the subject of a .

“The Astrobiology Science Conference is the biggest meeting of astrobiologists in the world, and this year, members of the UW Astrobiology Program are playing a major role in conference organization, as well as presenting our research at the meeting,” said Meadows, who chaired the science committee for AcSciCon2019.

Here are several UW presentations and papers scheduled for the weeklong conference. Though the lead presenter is listed here only, most projects involve the work of several colleagues.

• A study of water vapor and ice particles emitting from the plume on Saturn’s moon Enceladus, leading to a better understanding of the moon’s subsurface ocean. With Earth and space sciences doctoral student and colleagues. ()
• An examination of whether the coming James Webb Space Telescope will be able to detect atmospheres for all worlds in the intriguing, seven-planet system TRAPPIST-1, and finding that clouds and water vapor in the planets’ atmospheres might make such study more challenging. With astronomy and astrobiology doctoral student and colleagues. ()
• Description of a new open-source computer software package called VPLanet that simulates a wide range of planetary systems across billions of years, simulating atmospheres, orbits and stellar phenomena that can affect a planet’s ability to sustain liquid water on its surface, which is key to life. With Rory Barnes and colleagues. ()
• An exploration of how viruses and hosts co-evolved, enabling microbial life in extremely cold brines. With oceanography professor ().
• Modeling Earth’s atmosphere 2.7 billion years ago and the effect of iron-rich micrometeorites that rained down, melted and interacted with the surrounding gases, leading to a better understanding of carbon dioxide levels at that time. With Earth and space sciences graduate student and colleagues. ()
• A presentation on the UW Astronomy Department’s successful outreach to students through its that visits K-12 schools, enabling them to create shows of their own. With astronomy research assistant professor and several colleagues. and .)
• An exploration of how to determine if oxygen detected on an exoplanet is really produced by life, using high-resolution planetary spectra from ground-based telescopes. With , an astronomy doctoral student, and colleagues. ()
• A discussion of how studying a giant Pacific Octopus might help us learn more about different forms of cognition and better know and understand life beyond Earth 鈥� if we ever find it. With , a doctoral student in psychology. ()
• A study of microbial life in extremely cold brines within unfrozen subsurface areas of permafrost, and their possible relevance to similar environments on Mars or icy moons in the solar system. With , a doctoral student in biological oceanography, and colleagues. (.)

Many other UW faculty members will participate, either with reports on their own research or in support of colleagues or graduate students. These include ESS professors , , , , , astronomy professors , and , among others.

Astrobiologists such as Sullivan point out that the field鈥檚 focus and scientific benefit is about more than simply hunting for life, though that is the key motivator.

“It鈥檚 about thinking about life in a cosmic context. And about the origin and evolution of life,” Sullivan said.

“Even if you only care about Earth life, astrobiology is a viable 鈥� fundamental, I would say 鈥� interdisciplinary science that thrives independently of the existence of extraterrestrial life.鈥�

This fall, Deming embarks on a very different type of ocean exploration. A $500,000 grant from the , or NAKFI, will allow her and a group representing various disciplines in the sciences and the arts to look at the oceans in new ways.

The was one of three this fall as the inaugural winners of the NAKFI Challenge Grants, a program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine with funding from the W.M. Keck Foundation. Deming is among a small group of leaders of the effort that will generate events, distributed interactive spaces and grants for cross-disciplinary mentoring around the idea of ocean memory.

“The NAKFI Challenge award is a brand new kind of award, and it’s very experimental. Our proposal is the type of project you could not get funded by anybody else,” Deming said. “It will bring a diverse group of people together several times to develop ideas around this theme.”

Deming had participated previously in smaller NAKFI-funded projects, which bring a few dozen people together to explore ideas through a cross-disciplinary lens. One of these groups, the , met for the first time in September 2017 at Friday Harbor Laboratories. There, 20 participants and two facilitators spent five days sharing their various fields of expertise and coming up with new ideas. (Ben Fitzhugh, a UW professor of anthropology, and John Baross, a UW professor of oceanography, also participated in the workshop.)

The format was different from a typical science conference, Deming said. Facilitators had smaller groups of people generate ideas quickly, then work together to create tangible objects reflecting those ideas.

“If you are making something with your hands, then your brain works differently,” she said. “Although I may have been a skeptic in the beginning, I am a believer now, because I saw how we think and create differently.”

The group held a second workshop at the Djerassi Resident Arts Program in central California, and will have a final workshop in 2019 on Santa Catalina Island.

These smaller NAKFI-funded projects all emerged from a larger NAKFI conference in 2016, , led by oceanographer David Karl at the University of Hawaii. In one of many small break-out group discussions at that conference, an artist asked the question, 鈥淒oes the ocean have memory?鈥� and the phrase “ocean memory” immediately took hold.

“Our group was looking for something we could all connect to,” recalls Deming, who holds the Karl M. Banse professorship in the School of Oceanography. “And that question, ‘Does the ocean have memory?’ galvanized us. It resonated with me personally, as that’s what I believe I have been studying all my life, without having those words to describe it.”

The new grant will fund various activities around the theme of ocean memory, each led by participants from earlier NAKFI workshops using a rotating, collective leadership model. Deming is among the first group of leaders that also includes two artists, a marine biologist and cellist, and a cognitive scientist.

Their winning proposal reads: “Our ocean and its inhabitants hold memories of events throughout the evolution of the planet, awaiting our cognition. We propose to establish a thriving community exploring and expressing Ocean Memory, a new line of scientific inquiry highly evocative beyond science, aiming for a sea change in our ability to address challenges of the Anthropocene.”

The leadership team met for the first time in late October, and hopes to start accepting applications in early 2019 for the launching activity later that year. The group will select roughly 20鈥�30 participants using criteria similar to those of the NAKFI workshops, which seeks people of varied expertise who are keen to work across boundaries.

The grant will fund three annual “seed seminars,” each followed by a breakout working group and awards of small grants to pursue specific ideas, all culminating in 2022 with a larger conference at the UW. Also in the works are a science-oriented paper articulating the many meanings of ocean memory and plans for an exhibit at the San Francisco Art Institute.

Deming described the project in October at the聽, or DASER, event:

Deming’s other, more conventionally funded, research investigates microbes in the polar regions. Members of her research group recently returned from the joint Sweden-U.S. , where they examined how acidifying waters of the high Arctic might affect the productivity of microbes on the underside of the sea ice and between ice floes, and how such microbes, when lofted into the air in sea spray, might affect the formation of Arctic clouds. The group is also studying microbial communities, found thriving in ancient brines deep in Alaskan permafrost, which may hold surprising 鈥渕emories鈥� of their past ocean.

While the NAKFI grant allows her to explore different ways of knowing, there is overlap between the purely scientific efforts and those that bridge science and art, Deming said.

“Here is one idea of what we want to explore: To what extent do microorganisms living in the ocean hold a memory of past conditions, so when they get challenged by a changing environment 鈥� whether more acidity from more carbon dioxide, or changing temperatures, or both 鈥� will some networks of organisms be better prepared, more fit, than others because they’ve retained genetic memories of the past?”

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For more information, visit , or contact Deming at jdeming@uw.edu.