Does life exist elsewhere in the universe?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a question as old as time.<\/p>\n
And Amy Williams \u201907 is trying to find the answer through her work with NASA\u2019s Mars rover project.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have always wondered if we\u2019re alone in the universe and I\u2019ve always been intrigued with space,\u201d said Williams, now an assistant professor of geology at the University of Florida.<\/p>\n
\u201cServing on the mission \u2026 searching for life beyond Earth,\u201d she added, \u201cit\u2019s just beyond exciting to have that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
A South Carolina native, Williams grew up outside of Charleston with dreams of going into biology and pre-med. She fell in love with Furman during a high school tour of colleges.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing else could compare. There was something about the feel of the campus and the people I met,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was the first and only school I applied to. And I got in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her first semester, she signed up for an earth and environmental sciences course and was converted. She changed her major. And while working with her mentor, Brannon Andersen, who is the Rose J. Forgione Professor of Earth, Environmental, and Sustainability Sciences, she realized that she wanted to go into academia.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018I want to work with students, to do research, to teach,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cThis is the path for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andersen said that while he\u2019s mentored many outstanding students, Williams stands out in several ways, including her sense of curiosity, drive and intellect.<\/p>\n
\u201cWatching her career blossom and seeing her become the scientist she is today, successful in career and life, is why I love being a professor at Furman,\u201d he said. \u201cI can’t express how proud I am of Amy.\u201d<\/p>\n
After graduation, Williams attended the University of New Mexico to study earth and planetary science and later got her Ph.D. in geology from the University of California, Davis.<\/p>\n
For her Ph.D., she researched how microbes, like bacteria, can be preserved in the geologic rock record and detected with rover-like instruments. In her post-doctoral work, she joined the Mars Curiosity rover mission, researching microbes like bacteria with an instrument that can remotely detect organic carbon, which makes up the basis for life.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I talk about life on Mars, we\u2019re talking about microorganisms,\u201d she said. \u201cIf there were plants and animals, we would have seen them already.\u201d<\/p>\n
That led her to geobiology, and post-doctoral work as a rover collaborator at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center.<\/p>\n
Historically, Mars was dotted by lakes and rivers and maybe even oceans, much like Earth, she said. So it\u2019s possible life arose there. If it did, it may still exist in the subsurface or have gone extinct. She is part of a team working to answer some of these questions.<\/p>\n
In 2020, Williams joined NASA\u2019s newest Mars rover mission, Perseverance, as a participating scientist and astrobiologist. Perseverance landed on the Red Planet this past February to much fanfare.<\/p>\n
The Mars Sample Return program plans to bring geologic samples to Earth in the early 2030s for scientists worldwide to study for signs of life, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will revolutionize not only Mars science, but our understanding of the solar system,\u201d she said. \u201cNothing like this has ever been done before on Mars.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams credits Furman and the mentoring she received for launching her career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know about these research opportunities until I was truly guided to them by my mentors,\u201d she said. \u201cThe Furman experience and engagement truly \u2026 made all the difference in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
So how does Williams answer the question about other life in the universe?<\/p>\n
She ponders the vastness of space and the number of galaxies, and quotes famed astronomer Carl Sagan:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe universe is a pretty\u00a0big\u00a0<\/strong>place.\u00a0If it\u2019s just us, seems like an awful waste of space.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Does life exist elsewhere in the universe? It\u2019s a question as old as time. And Amy Williams \u201907 is trying to find the answer through her work with NASA\u2019s Mars […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,3,37,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic-department-page","category-alumni","category-earth-environmental-and-sustainability-sciences","category-top-four-news-1st-story"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9577\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}