Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM 

Monday, May 7, 2001 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium 

Carl Pilcher

ABSTRACT -- Discoveries about life on Earth made over the last 2-3 decades have had a major impact on solar system exploration. Increasingly, biocentrism--which places questions of life at the center, but of necessity embraces all aspects of solar system exploration-provides an organizing perspective. I will describe the discoveries about life that have led to this perspective, and then focus on two targets of exploration, Mars and Jupiter's moon Europa, with direct relevance to questions of life beyond Earth..

SPEAKER -- Dr. Pilcher is temporarily serving as Special Assistant for Astrobiology in the Office of Space Science, with general responsibility for the long-term development of Astrobiology as an academic field. In his regular position as Science Director for Solar System Exploration, he is responsible for the scientific effectiveness and much of the overall management of NASA's solar system exploration program. Dr. Pilcher was previously the Assistant Associate Administrator for Strategic and International Planning in the Office of Space Science. Prior to that, he served in a number of capacities in the Office of Space Science and Applications and the Office of Exploration related to human and robotic exploration of the solar system.

Dr. Pilcher has Bachelors and Doctoral degrees in chemistry from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn and MIT, respectively, and a masters degree in international relations from Princeton University. He served for 12 years on the faculty of the Institute for Astronomy and the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Hawaii before joining NASA Headquarters in 1988.