Laurie Barge

Laurie Barge is a Senior Research Scientist in astrobiology at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She is also affiliated with the Oak Crest Institute of Science. She studies the emergence of life on Earth and ways to search for life elsewhere, particularly focusing on how minerals affect chemistry for the emergence of life on early Earth, Mars, and "ocean worlds" such as Saturn's moon Enceladus.

Laurie leads various research efforts. These include studying the effects of minerals and geochemical environments on prebiotic chemistry (as the PI of a NASA Habitable Worlds project, “Feeding Enceladus’ Deep Biosphere”); and investigating the emergence of metabolism in hydrothermal vents (as PI of a NASA Exobiology project, “Emergence of Metabolism in an Alkaline Hydrothermal Vent”).

Laurie was the Co-PI of the NSF “Pathways in STEM” program in which she designed geoscience career development activities for community college students, and is currently Co-I of a NASA MOSAICS project that builds connections between astrobiology and environmental science research for Cal State LA students. Laurie is the HiRISE Investigation Scientist for NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission, a Mars Science Laboratory Participating Scientist (studying prebiotic chemistry on Mars), and is involved with various mission / instrument concepts for astrobiology. She is also the co-lead of the Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS) research coordination network.

She received her B.S. in Astronomy and Astrophysics from Villanova University and her Ph.D. in Geological Sciences from the University of Southern California. After graduate school, she was a postdoctoral fellow at JPL and then with the NASA Astrobiology Institute.

For her astrobiology research, Laurie has received the NASA Early Career Public Achievement Medal, the JPL Lew Allen Award, the Rosalind Franklin Society Award for Astrobiology, and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.