Melissa G. Trainer (born April 22, 1978)[1] is an American astrobiologist who in 2004 demonstrated empirically that life could have formed on Earth through the interaction of methane, carbon dioxide and ultraviolet light (sunlight).
She is Assistant Chief for Science, Operations, and Strategic Planning in the Planetary Environments Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
She completed her Bachelor of Arts degree at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 2000, graduating Magna Cum Laude with a major in Chemistry and a minor in Abstract Mathematics.
[4] Project investigator Owen Toon reported, "As had been predicted in some theoretical studies we found that the production rate of aerosols declines as the abundance of CO2 relative to methane increases in simulated terrestrial atmospheres.
"[5] Trainer and her coexperimenters reported on their findings in Astrobiology in a 2004 paper called "Haze Aerosols in the Atmosphere of Early Earth: Manna from Heaven".