Mary Voytek
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Dr. Mary A. Voytek is the Exobiology Branch Chief at NASA's
Ames Research Center The Ames Research Center (ARC), also known as NASA Ames, is a major NASA research center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California's Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1939 as the second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) laborat ...
, and the former director of the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the United States's civil space program, aeronautics research and space research. Established in 1958, it su ...
(NASA)
Astrobiology Astrobiology (also xenology or exobiology) is a scientific field within the List of life sciences, life and environmental sciences that studies the abiogenesis, origins, Protocell, early evolution, distribution, and future of life in the univ ...
Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.Daniella Scalice
Astrobiology – Life in the Universe – Mary Voytek – Biography
. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, November 11, 2011, retrieved November 12, 2011
In 2015, Voytek formed
Nexus for Exoplanet System Science The Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS) initiative is a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) virtual institute designed to foster interdisciplinary collaboration in the search for life on exoplanets. Led by the Ames Resear ...
(NExSS), a
systems science Systems science, also referred to as systems research or simply systems, is a transdisciplinary field that is concerned with understanding simple and complex systems in nature and society, which leads to the advancements of formal, natural, socia ...
initiative by NASA, to search for
life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...
on
exoplanet An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first confirmed detection of an exoplanet was in 1992 around a pulsar, and the first detection around a main-sequence star was in 1995. A different planet, first det ...
s.Loff, Sarah (April 21, 2015).
NASA’s NExSS Coalition to Lead Search for Life on Distant Worlds
" NASA. Retrieved April 22, 2015.
Voytek came to NASA from th
U.S. Geological Survey
in Reston, VA, where she headed the USGS Microbiology and Molecular Ecology Laboratory from 1998 to 2009.


Education

B.A. in biology, Johns Hopkins University, 1980 M.S. in Biological Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, 1984 Ph.D. in Biology/Ocean Sciences, University of California, 1995 Postdoctoral Fellow, Rutgers University Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences, 1995–1997


Research and Professional Activities

Voytek's primary scientific interests are
biogeochemistry Biogeochemistry is the Branches of science, scientific discipline that involves the study of the chemistry, chemical, physics, physical, geology, geological, and biology, biological processes and reactions that govern the composition of the natu ...
and aquatic
microbial ecology Microbial ecology (or environmental microbiology) is a discipline where the interaction of Microorganism, microorganisms and their environment are studied. Microorganisms are known to have important and harmful ecological relationships within t ...
; more particularly, environmental controls on microbial transformations of nutrients,
xenobiotic A xenobiotic is a chemical substance found within an organism that is not naturally produced or expected to be present within the organism. It can also cover substances that are present in much higher concentrations than are usual. Natural compo ...
s, and metals in freshwater and marine systems. She has worked in several extreme environments, including Antarctica,
hypersaline lake A hypersaline lake is a landlocked body of water that contains significant concentrations of sodium chloride, brines, and other salts, with saline levels surpassing those of ocean water (3.5%, i.e. ). Specific microbial species can thrive i ...
s, deep-sea
hydrothermal vent Hydrothermal vents are fissures on the seabed from which geothermally heated water discharges. They are commonly found near volcanically active places, areas where tectonic plates are moving apart at mid-ocean ridges, ocean basins, and hot ...
s, and terrestrial deep-subsurface sites. Voytek has conducted
deep biosphere The deep biosphere is the part of the biosphere that resides below the first few meters of the ocean's surface. It extends below the continental surface and below the sea surface, at temperatures that may reach beyond which is comparable to s ...
studies at the Chesapeake Bay Impact Structure. Voytek was a staff scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund (1987–1990) prior to completing her PhD at the University of Rhode Island. After her postdoc at Rutgers University she was a visiting research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Limnology in Plön, Germany from 1997 to 1998. Voytek joined the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Research Program in 1998 where she led the Microbiology and Molecular Ecology team until 2009. She was an invited scholar for the German-American Frontiers of Science (1997 and 2001), and she received a USGS Superior Service Award in 2005. She took charge of the NASA Astrobiology Program on September 15, 2008, as Interim Senior Scientist for Astrobiology in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. Voytek has been a member of the
American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, Atmospheric science, atmospheric, Oceanography, ocean, Hydrology, hydrologic, Astronomy, space, and Planetary science, planetary scientists and enthusiasts that ...
since 1990, and she served as the secretary of the AGU Biogeosciences section from 2004 to 2006 and was the Biogeosciences section meeting chair from 2003 to 2006. She is currently a board member of the American Geophysical Union. Voytek is also a member of the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) (1984 to present) and the American Society of Microbiology (1991 to present). She has served on several advisory groups to Department of the Interior, Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and NASA, including the Planetary Protection Subcommittee. She has also supported NASA's Astrobiology Program serving as a NASA representative to a number of COSPAR convened studies exploring the potential for life in the universe. She has held positions in several science societies. In December 2010, she defended a news release of NASA on the possibility there might be a principally wider basis of life than so far assumed, following conclusions of a study by
Felisa Wolfe-Simon Felisa Wolfe-Simon is an American microbial geobiologist and biogeochemist. In 2010, Wolfe-Simon led a team that discovered GFAJ-1, an extremophile bacterium that they claimed was capable of substituting arsenic for a small percentage of its p ...
on the arsenic-eating bacterium
GFAJ-1 GFAJ-1 is a strain of rod-shaped bacteria in the family Halomonadaceae. It is an extremophile that was isolated from the hypersaline and alkaline Mono Lake in eastern California by geobiologist Felisa Wolfe-Simon, a NASA research fellow in re ...
, as presenting a "phenomenal finding".


Publications

Voytek has been an author or co-author on over 70 peer-reviewed publications in interdisciplinary journals. Her top 5 most cited publications are: # . # # . # # Additional publications include: *A Synopsis of Chesapeake Bay research. With Ian Morris, Sarah E. Libourel Houde, and Wayne Harrell Bell. Center for Environmental and Estuarine Studies, University of Maryland System, 1988 * Ominous future under the ozone hole: assessing biological impacts in Antarctica. Environmental Defense Fund, Wildlife Program, 1989 * Relative abundance and species diversity of autotrophic ammonia-oxidizing bacteria in aquatic systems. University of California, Santa Cruz 1996 * Molecular ecology of aquatic communities. With J. P. Zehr, 1999 * Preliminary assessment of microbial communities and biodegradation of chlorinated volatile organic compounds in wetlands at Cluster 13, Lauderick Creek area, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. With Michelle M. Lorah and Tracey A. Spencer. U.S. Dept. of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, 2003


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Voytek, Mary A. Obama administration personnel First Trump administration personnel 21st-century American biologists 21st-century American women scientists American microbiologists Astrobiologists American women biologists Biogeochemists Living people Women microbiologists Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women civil servants