There will be a 1-day symposium held at Caltech on June 28 sponsored by the International Geobiology Course. The topic of the symposium is “Signs of Life from the Fringe”, and explores recent efforts to find and/or understand life in extreme environments, the deep subsurface, in deep time, and on Mars. The program includes:

• Dawn Sumner (University of California, Davis): “Thriving in the Fringe Environments of Liquid Water in Antarctica: Photosynthetic Mats in Ice-Covered Lakes”
• Victoria Orphan (California Institute of Technology): “Dead or Alive? Signs of Life from the Deep Biosphere”
• Tori Hoehler (NASA Ames Research Center): “Biosignatures in the Context of Low Energy Flux”
• Jochen Brocks (Australian National University): “The Rise of Algae and the Emergence of Animals”
• Jennifer Stern (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center): “Roving for Breadcrumbs: Seeking Signatures of Life and Habitability on the Surface of Mars”
• Ken Williford (Jet Propulsion Laboratory): “Mars 2020 and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life”

The symposium will be held in the Sharp Lecture Hall on Thursday, June 28 starting at 9am. It is open to the scientific public and free of charge. You are cordially invited to attend, either in part or for the entire symposium depending on interest. A continental breakfast and buffet lunch will also be served to symposium participants. If you are interested in participating, please RSVP so that we can plan appropriately for food and drink. If you want to just stop by to hear a speaker or two, please feel free and there is no need to respond.