Jennifer Parker
Art. Maintains a multifaceted research practice between the arts and sciences. She believes being an artist is an opportunity to tell stories that reflect the beauty, curiosity, and challenges of all species living on the planet.
Erika Hayden
Science Communication. Directs the UC Santa Cruz Science Communication Graduate Program. Erika is a science journalist interested in involving the public in discussions about the science, ethics and societal impact of astrobiology.
Kyle Robertson
Philosophy. Assitstant Director of UC Santa Cruz’s Center for Public Philosophy. Seeks to solicit and amplify voices that are not traditionally heard in public deliberations about difficult ethical and political situations.
Daniel Guevara
Philosophy. Serves as co-lead of the Center for Public Philosophy’s Language of Conservation program which envisions a transformation in humanity’s ethical relationship to nature through discovery and development.
Jon Ellis
Philosophy. Directs the Center for Public Philosophy at UC Santa Cruz. Seeks to facilitate productive dialogue and deliberation and engage with the public on issues of philosophy, ethics, and critical thinking including space exploration ethics.
Martin Devecka
Literature. Studies definitions of life from a historical perspective. He is also interested in biosignatures as a problem of linguistics and information theory.
Zac Zimmer
Literature. Interested in the history of colonialism and how it relates to the future of space exploration. Currently using the sixteenth century colonial history of the Americas as a way to think about astrobiological futures.
Christina Ravelo
Ocean Sciences. Studies the interaction between biological and environmental change in Earth’s geological past, with a focus on past warm periods and on climate transitions.
David Haussler
Biomolecular Engineering. Interested in whole genome sequencing, the scientific principles of life, evolution by natural selection, forms of entropy, self-organization, and the key milestones in the evolution of intelligence on earth.
Chad Saltikov
Microbiology & Environmental Toxicology. Studies the genetics and physiology of microbes that can grow on and metabolize toxic metals. Focuses on the genetic pathways for anaerobic reduction/oxidation of arsenic compounds and anoxygenic photosynthesis of arsenic in extreme environments.