(Past) Life on Mars with Joby Hollis

On February 18, 2021, the Perseverance (aka. Percy) became the latest rover to land on the Mars, its mission: to seek out signs of past life on the red planet. In this Webinar, EGU will be sitting to talk interview-style with Dr. Joby Hollis, a planetary scientist at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratories who contributed to the development of SHERLOC – the instrument on the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover seeking chemical signatures of ancient, Martian life . We’ll be asking our expert how we might detect Martian life? What we might be expect life to be? Why should us terrestrials care? And how may those interested engage with such research?

The webinar will conclude with an audience Q&A, so come prepped with your own questions!

Joseph (also known as Joby) is a postdoctoral scholar in the planetary sciences section at JPL, where he works on the SHERLOC instrument going to Mars aboard the Mars 2020 rover. SHERLOC is an arm-mounted deep-ultraviolet Raman & fluorescence spectrometer, designed to detect the chemical signatures of past life or previous habitability on the red planet.

Joby is using his experience in optical spectroscopy to develop more advanced analytical methods for data collected by SHERLOC. This information will help us understand how to identify organic compounds on Mars, even at low concentrations, and determine whether or not they may have been produced by living organisms.

Joby also advocates for greater inclusivity and diversity for under-represented groups in STEM, particularly LGBT+ people, and is a trustee for the Pride in STEM charitable trust in the UK.

You can view the online event here (Youtube).

If you have any questions about ‘(Past) Life on Mars with Joby Hollis’, please contact us via webinars@egu.eu.