Fulbright awards Senior Specialist grant to Carnegie's Marilyn Fogel

Washington, DC-- As part of its international scientific exchange effort, the Fulbright Senior Specialists Program has awarded Carnegie scientist Marilyn Fogel a grant to share the most up-to-date findings in the fields of astrobiology and biogeochemistry with staff and students at the Physics of Geological Processes, University of Oslo, Norway. The Fulbright Senior Specialists Program provides two-to six-week opportunities for leading U.S. scholars to collaborate with scholars in non-U.S. post-secondary academic institutions. Fogel will give lectures, participate in workshops, and take part in fieldwork in association with the Arctic Mars Analogue Svalbard Expedition (AMASE)* this summer.

AMASE is an interdisciplinary, international team, which is designing devices and techniques for finding life on Mars. The test ground is Svalbard, a Norwegian island in the far north with a geology that is analogous to some Martian geology.

Fogel will lecture on astrobiology, an interdisciplinary field that probes the processes that led to life on this planet and explores whether it exists elsewhere. In her research, she looks at distinctive isotopes of carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen to trace phenomena ranging from the role of humans in altering the landscape in ancient Australia, to the nature of microorganisms that first populated the Earth.

"This Fulbright grant is the first of its kind for Carnegie," commented Carnegie president Richard Meserve. "We are very pleased with this award because it will help to maintain the strong linkage that has been established between Carnegie and Norwegian scientists."

Fogel has been a staff scientist at the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory since 1979. Her undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate research has spanned the spectrum of biology, chemistry, and geology. She graduated with a B.S. in biology from Pennsylvania State University with honors and went on to get her Ph.D. at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute.

*The AMASE Team comes from the following institutions: Physics of Geological Processes, University of Oslo, Norway; The Carnegie Institution of Washington, Geophysical Laboratory; the University of Leeds; Universidad de Burgos, Spain; GEMOC, Macquarie University, Australia; NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; LPI – Lunar and Planetary Institute; and Penn State University.

The Carnegie Institution of Washington (www.CarnegieInstitution.org) has been a pioneering force in basic scientific research since 1902. It is a private, nonprofit organization with six research departments throughout the U.S. Carnegie scientists are leaders in plant biology, developmental biology, astronomy, materials science, global ecology, and Earth and planetary science.

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