Date/Time
Thursday
27 Sep 2012
5:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Location
421 Stanley Hall

Event Type
Non-CSTMS Event

Margaret Race
Senior Research Scientist, SETI Institute

The Science, Technology, and Engineering Policy group will host Margaret
Race, Ph.D. senior research scientist from the SETI Institute on
Thursday September 27th, 5-6PM in Stanley Hall 421. Her talk will be
focusing on “Planetary protection… on Earth and beyond.”

Margaret Race is concerned with protecting the planets. Actually,
protecting all the planets: but especially Earth and Mars. Her work focuses
on the scientific, technical, legal and societal issues of ensuring that
missions to the Red Planet and other solar system bodies do not either
inadvertently bring terrestrial microbes along, which would complicate our
search for indigenous extraterrestrial life, or return any microbes to
Earth. Recently, she’s done a research study on the environmental impact
reviews and public communication associated with high-containment biosafety
labs – the type that will eventually be used for the quarantine of returned
samples from Mars.

Her interest in extraterrestrial organisms is linked closely to her long
term ecological research on exotic and invasive species. She’s also
actively involved in education and public outreach about astrobiology.
Since her early work with the Environmental Protection Agency as a Public
Information Specialist, and her tenure at San Francisco television station
KQED, Margaret has had a strong interest in the communication of science
via the mass media. She especially likes to work with journalists and
educators as they develop materials about complex, controversial issues in
space exploration and environmental protection. Her enthusiasm is
infectious, and her work ensures that our spacecraft won’t be.