Shawn Domagal-Goldman 69 17

I'm an astrobiologist that is a postdoc at NASA headquarters. My day to day work consists of helping run the astrobiology program, and has included work on things from panel reviews (how we select what research projects to fund) to conferences, workshops, and overview papers. These endeavors play into a larger passion of mine: improving the ability of scientists to communicate with each other and with the outside world. My research is focused on improving our ability to search for life on extrasolar planets, in anticipation of a future NASA mission to conduct that search. I like using the history of Earth and other solar system objects as a guide in this thinking. Thus, I also think a lot about the Earth before the rise of atmospheric oxygen (the gas we breathe) because I consider that planet to be the most alien one for for we have convincing evidence of life.