Fred Fry (ffry@cfsan.fda.gov)
Howard Cyr (hwc@cdrh.fda.gov) or me
Paddy Wiesenfeld (pwiesenf@cfsan.fda.gov)
Fairfax, VA | March 15, 2003 (winners selected) |
Washington, DC | March 15, 2003 (winners selected) |
Montgomery County, MD | March 22, 2003 (new location GE Global Exchange Services this weekend!) |
Prince Georges County, MD | April 5, 2003 |
Date: | May 2, 2003 |
Location: | Anchor Inn, Wheaton, MD |
Cost: | $20.00 - $25.00 |
Reservations: | send checks to: Dr. T.F.X. Collins, Treasurer FDA Chapter Sigma Xi |
Speaker: | Dr. John D. Rummel Biologist and NASA Planetary Protection Officer "Life in the Universe and Safe Solar System Exploration" Learn about sample returns from comets, the solar system and Mars or ask him about his research in Antarctica |
Biographical Information: | Dr. John D. Rummel is the NASA Planetary Protection Officer, based at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. While at NASA Headquarters from 1986-1993, Rummel held posts as the Deputy Chief of the Mission From Planet Earth Study Office, and in the Life Sciences and Solar System Exploration Divisions served as the Exobiology Program Manager and the SETI Program Scientist, and as the Branch Chief for the Gravitational Biology, Life Support, and Biospheric Research Programs in the Life Sciences Division. He led the US teams responsible for defining joint exobiology and life support activities with the Soviet Union/Russia, and served for the first time as the NASA Planetary Protection Officer. From 1994-1998, he was the Director of Research Administration and Education at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where he was responsible for the MBL's year-round and summer research efforts, its fellowship program, and for the MBL's world-famous program in advanced biological education. He is also a Faculty Associate at the Department of Civil Engineering at Colorado State University, and was detailed from there to NASA during 1999-2001. For his work at Headquarters Dr. Rummel was the recipient of NASA performance and achievement awards, and was made a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His research interests have included ecosystems ecology, community ecology and evolutionary biology, the ecology and biogeography of deep sea hydrothermal vents, and the potential for life elsewhere in the universe. Dr. Rummel first came to NASA in 1985 as a National Research Council Research Associate, conducting research on microbial ecology and on the modeling of Controlled Ecological Life Support Systems at the Ames Research Center in California. He was awarded a Doctorate by Stanford University for his research in community ecology and evolution in 1985. He was an undergraduate at the University of Colorado in Environmental Biology, and served on active duty as a Naval Flight Officer for five years before attending graduate school. |