Nathalie Cabrol

There, with her team, she documents life's adaptation to extreme environments, the effect of rapid climate change on lake ecosystems and habitats, its geobiological signatures, and relevance to planetary exploration.

She is the principal investigator of the SETI Institute NAI team, which was selected in October 2014 to develop new biosignature detection and exploration strategies in support of the then-upcoming Mars 2020 mission.

[2] Between 1985 and 1994 Cabrol conducted planetary geology research with her husband, Edmond Grin, at the Paris-Sorbonne University and Observatoire de Paris-Meudon of France.

[2] In 1998, she became a NASA contractor through the SETI Institute, continued her Mars research there and was elevated on 7 August 2015 to the director of the Carl Sagan Center.

[2] Cabrol found an abundance of life, including new species and a massive field of fossilized microbial mats, called stromatolites.

[7] Cabrol has written over 400 peer-reviewed articles and conference proceeding papers and several books, and is the recipient of a number of research awards.

[12] She was the subject of a major profile in the New York Times Sunday Magazine (March 22, 2018) by Helen Macdonald, "In Her Orbit: Nathalie Cabrol Searches the Earth for the Secrets of Life on Mars," which documented her high-altitude explorations in the Andes.