Life in Space: Astrobiology for Nonscientists

Author Biography

Dr. Amri Wandel has created and is teaching the course "Astrophysics and Life in the Universe", with over hundred students annually, to science and non-science undergraduate programs at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a few times at the Astronomy program at UCLA. He frequently gives public talks and media interviews on astrobiology. His main research has been on active galaxies and massive black holes, and in the last years works also in astrobiology, in particular on habitability of exoplanets. Wandel has published over 100 scientific papers, over 40 in refereed journals (mainly ApJ). He coauthored the book "The Cosmos and Us" (in Esperanto, FEL 2001,2005, 2017, 2022). He is Chairman of the Israel society for Astrobiology and the Origin of Life (ILASOL), and member of the International Astronomical Union and its astrobiology commission F3.   Dr. Joseph Gale carried out research and served for some years as consultant to NASA's CELSS project(Controlled Environment Life Support Systems). From there he became interested in the exobiology program, later astrobiology. Gale has built and taught a program on "The Astrobiology of Planet Earth" an elective for third year science students, which over the last decade attracts some one hundred students each year. He has lectured at numerous national and international conferences. In last two years, he was invited to participate in astrobiology seminars of the University of Stockholm and the International Space University. Gale has published some 100+ papers and coauthored four books, including "Plants in Saline Environments" (Springer-Verlag 1975) and "Astrobiology of Earth" (OUP 2009).