It was eleven years in the making, but Dr. Christopher McKay finally visited the University of Arkansas. For those unfamiliar with Dr. McKay, he is one of the world’s leading authorities on the possibility of life on Mars as well as terraforming Mars.  My association with him is as a collaborator and he also serves as an external advisor to the space center.

A large crowd turned out to hear his general public presentation, “Life on Mars: Past, Present and Future”, in Giffels Auditorium on March 25th.  McKay focused on the early history of Mars, a time when evidence suggests that Mars had liquid water, more volcanic activity, and a thicker atmosphere.  Mars actually had this Earth-like environment over 3.5 billion years ago, during the same time that life appeared on Earth.  McKay suggested that we need to search for an independent origin of life, a second genesis if you will.

McKay further pointed out that  ecosystems in cold, dry locations on Earth, such as Antarctica, may provide examples of how life on Mars might have survived and even where to look.  Discovery of fossils would not be enough to determine a second genesis.  McKay stressed it is important to find intact martian life which may be frozen in the deep old permafrost.

A second event in the evening found Dr. McKay as the guest speaker at the Sigma Xi 50th anniversary initiation banquet.  He focused on life beneath the ice in frozen Antarctic lakes, centering most of his attention on Lake Vostok.

This particular lake is approximately four kilometers beneath glacial ice and offers an opportunity and challenge for the development of novel life forms.  Once again, McKay used Antarctica as one way to study and understand Mars.

McKay’s visit was important because it garnered significant publicity for the space center.  He in turn was impressed by our campus and surrounding region.  One student put his visit into perspective when she stated that his presentation was the best she had ever attended.

Tim Kral, Center Faculty

We held our third annual meeting of students, faculty, industrial partners and external advisors to the space center on the 24th and 25th of March in Old Main and in the Chemistry Building.  Two of our external advisors were able to attend, Chris McKay and Stephen Saunders, and our unofficial advisor Barney Farmer was also able to come.  As anyone reading this probably knows, Chris is an expert astrobiologist, Steve is a planetary geologist heavily involved in Odyssey, and Barney is an noted authority on planetary atmospheres.  Faculty in the center made brief research presentations (although in some cases, such as mine, not brief enough) and then we discussed progress with our education programs (the REU program and the new space and planetary science graduate degree program).  The REU discussion took place next to the Peace Fountain during a fire alarm.  The students and the external advisors were invited to make observations and suggestions, and they were all very useful.  The students proposed greater interaction between OSU and UArk (such as informal combined group meetings and a canoe trip) and they expressed concerns about balance between depth and breadth in the new degree programs.  The external advisors also had useful comments to make, such as suggesting greater attention students and their research during the annual meetings.  They also had concrete advice for the astrobiology and Andromeda chamber work and ideas were floated for collaboration over radiation dosimetry for ice-rich sediments.  There were the usual social events, a lunch and an evening reception, and on Tuesday there were more research discussions and a very popular lecture by Chris McKay on life on Mars.

Derek Sears, Director

John Wasson, who graduated from the University of Arkansas’ Department of Chemistry in 1955, has just been awarded a highly prestigious award by the National Academy of Sciences.  It is the J. Lawrence Smith Award that is awarded no more than once every two years for “investigations of meteoric bodies”.  The citation states that the 2003 award is made to him “for important studies on the classification, origin, and early history of iron meteorites and chondritic meteorites, and on the mode of formation of chondrules.”  The award is in memory of John Lawrence Smith (1881–1883), a chemist interested in mineralogy and who amassed a major meteorite collection. When he died, his widow sold the collection to Harvard University and gave the income to the National Academy to establish the award. Since 1888, it has been won by 21 of the foremost authorities on meteorites.

After graduating from Arkansas, John gained a Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1958 after which he spent a year at the Technische Hochschule, Munich.  He then assumed his present position as professor in two departments (Chemistry and Biochemistry and Earth and Space Sciences) and the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, fellow of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science and a corresponding member of the Danish Academy of Sciences.  He has been awarded the Leonard Medal of the Meteoritical Society and he has had an asteroid named after him, 4783 Wasson.

John has devoted his entire career to the study of meteorites, being known for the pioneering use of nuclear analytical methods of analysis.  He has a wife, Gudrun, and two daughters.

Over spring break I attended the annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference with Dr. Sears, Dr. Benoit, Dr. Kracher, Mikhail Kareev, Justin Thompson, Aaron Meier, and Shauntae Moore.  The conference was held at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas.  The conference proved to be a valuable experience.  From a graduate student point of view and attending the conference for the first time, I was impressed at how many well-known people were in attendance and how many were willing to talk to you about anything from your personal interests to what research you are involved in. It was gratifying to finally match the names I've repeatedly come across in papers to actual faces.

The poster sessions provided an opportunity to talk one-on-one with people about their research and also gave you a chance to network, with hopes of finding possible research collaborators and lifelong friends.

One of the most valuable experiences we had as a group was giving oral or poster presentations.  Each member of our group gave a presentation during the week.  All the presentations went very well and we came away, knowing what we had to do better for next year.  While all the new knowledge I gained during the day was quite draining, I was reinvigorated by the sight of so many other graduate students in attendance.  We often got together later in the evening to have some more fun and get to know each other better.  Overall, I think the conference was a great experience.  We were intellectually stimulated, met new people, and had a good time. I look forward to going next year!

Melissa Franzen, UArk Graduate Student