Astrobiology focuses on the search for life beyond Earth. A core mission of the UC Santa Cruz Astrobiology Initiative is to effectively communicate with the public the science and ethics of this field. To this end, the UC Santa Cruz Astrobiology Initiative sponsors a Science Communication Graduate Fellowship. Scholars will focus their capstone Science Notes project on an astrobiology topic in consultation with the directors of the Astrobiology Initiative and Science Communication Program.

Astrobiology focuses on the search for life on and beyond Earth. A core mission of the UC Santa Cruz Astrobiology Initiative is to effectively communicate with the public the science and ethics of this field. To this end, the UC Santa Cruz Astrobiology Initiative sponsors a Science Communication Graduate Fellowship. 

Zack Savitsky is the 2022 Astrobiology Science Communication Fellow. Before starting his graduate studies at UC Santa Cruz in the fall, he received a B.S. in public relations from the University of Florida, minored in physics and interned as a science writer for Fermilab. In his time in the Science Communication Program, Zack has written about biosignature detection for Inside Science, threats to local astronomy for the San Jose Mercury News and early-Earth habitability for Eos magazine. He’s currently working on a feature story about Noemie Globus’s search for why DNA twists to the right, which may aid the search for life on other planets. After graduation, he’ll join Science magazine as a news intern.

“Astrobiology asks some of the deepest questions of them all: What is life, how did it start and how will it evolve?” Savitsky writes. “Probing our understanding of our place in the universe is what defines humanity, and I’m dedicated to increasing accessibility to these insights.”