The NAI congratulates the faculty sabbatical awardees for the NAI MIRS program for 2008. They are:

Dr. Prabhakar Misra, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Howard University, who will be working with Dr. Paul Mahafft at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, on a project entitled "Spectroscopy and Analytical Protocols for Organic Molecules of Relevance to the Origin of Life on Mars and Earth."

Dr. Erik Melchiorre, Associate Professor of Geology, California State University, San Bernardino, who will work with Drs. Karen Meech, Mike Mottl and Jim Cowen at the University of Hawaii, at Manoa. His study is entitled, "Planetary Habitability and the Origins of Life: Evaluation of Mineralogical Evidence for Extremophile Colonization within Terrestrial Subduction Zones. "

For more information about the NAI MIRS program see http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/nai/funding/nai-minority-institution-research-support [Source: NAI Newsletter]