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Accommodations
Participants will live on campus.
Housing and meals will be provided by the program.
Research
The research focus and theme of our
program is astrobiology, the origin and evolution of life in the
universe. Because the only life we know of at this time is on Earth, much of
astrobiology research is focused on understanding how life began on Earth and
diversified during the Precambrian, the first few billion years. Penn State
hosts one of five astrobiology research centers first established by
NASA at academic institutions in 1998. The primary research focus of the Penn
State Astrobiology Research Center is the study of the evolution of life and
the environment on early Earth. Click here
for details on the research of ASP faculty mentors. Research activities
will occupy at least 40 hours per week of the participant's schedule.
 Orientation
There will
be a welcome reception at which students will meet faculty mentors, other
faculty in the astrobiology research group at Penn State, resident astrobiology
students (undergraduate and graduate) and postdoctoral fellows. The
following morning, there will be an orientation
session during which several important topics will be covered, including an
introduction to the Penn State campus & facilities, an overview of Astrobiology
Summer Program activities, research ethics, and general safety procedures.
Field Trip
There will be a 3-day field trip to Washington DC early in the program. There
are several astrobiology-related activities in the area. We will get a
behind-the-scenes tour of the Goddard Space Flight Center, meet with
astrobiology researchers there (a research team of NASA Astrobiology Institute),
visit NASA Headquarters and meet
 with
the the Planetary Protection Officer, and tour the Smithsonian's Air and Space
Museum on the Mall, including a behind-the scenes tour. On the way between Penn
State and Washington DC we will stop at an "Early Earth" site, an exposure of
Precambrian rocks, and learn about the environments that created them.
Weekly Seminars, Presentations & Laboratory Tours
There will be weekly
laboratory tours and a lunchtime seminar each week. There will also be a
workshop covering
professional skills in science, such as graduate school admissions, the
publication process, writing skills, etc., as well as weekly informal discussion
groups covering philosophical aspects of astrobiology.
Research Symposium
This is the final event of the summer program. It is a research
symposium and farewell reception where program students are given the opportunity to
present their research in the form of both posters and oral presentations.
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