Monthly Membership Meeting

The next meeting is Tuesday, February 27th, 6:00p gather, 6:30p business meeting, 7p program:  Cosmic Distribution of Biospheres

We are honored to host Dr. Richard Hoover at this month’s meeting!  Dr. Hoover will demonstrate the spectacular beauty of the microworld; the planets, nebulae, and galaxies of the Cosmos; the exotic rocks and microfossils of meteorites; and the wonders and mysteries of the origin of life.  You don’t want to miss this fascinating program!  Read more about Dr. Hoover’s program!

Biographical Sketch

In 1997, Prof. Dr. Richard B. Hoover established the Astrobiology Program at NASA/MSFC to study microbial extremophiles and microfossils in carbonaceous meteorites.  He led scientific expeditions to North Siberia, Alaska, Canada, Iceland, Austria, South Africa, Patagonia and Antarctica to search for samples.   With Dr. Elena V. Pikuta, he has described one new family, five new genera, and fifteen new species of bacteria from samples collected during these expeditions.  In recognition of his scientific discoveries from these expeditions, Dr. Hoover has been elected Fellow National of the Explorers Club. Using the NASA/MSFC Scanning Electron Microscope, Dr. Hoover and Academician Rozanov discovered well-preserved fossilized remains of extraterrestrial cyanobacteria, diatoms, and other microorganisms in the Orgueil (CI1), Murchison (CM2), and Polonnaruwa (C-Ung) meteorites from France, Australia and Sri Lanka.  Prof. Dr. Hoover has authored/edited over 50 Books and 400 scientific papers in Conference Proceedings, peer reviewed journals, and lectured on every continent on Earth.  His research has been featured in BBC’s “Blue Planet Red, Wonders of the Solar System”; NASA’s “Unexplained Files”; “Ancient Aliens”; NSF; and NBC/LX, and on Japan TV and The History Channel.  Dr. Hoover was made Honorary Life Member of the Planetary Studies Foundation (2003) for discovery of meteorite microfossils.  He was awarded the Degree and Title Doctor of Science, h. c. for development of x-ray optics and scientific expeditions; Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) (2021); Professor Doctor of Ilia State University in Tbilisi, Georgia, and elected Fellow of The World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS), founded by Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer.