Mary Voytek

Dr. Mary A. Voytek is the Exobiology Branch Chief at NASA's Ames Research Center, and the former director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Astrobiology Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. In 2015, Voytek formed Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS), a systems science initiative by NASA, to search for life on exoplanets. Voytek came to NASA from the U.S. Geological Survey in Reston, VA, where she headed the USGS Microbiology and Molecular Ecology Laboratory from 1998 to 2009.

Education

B.A. in biology, Johns Hopkins University, 1980

M.S. in Biological Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, 1984

Ph.D. in Biology/Ocean Sciences, University of California, 1995

Postdoctoral Fellow, Rutgers University Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences, 1995–1997

Research and Professional Activities Voytek's primary scientific interests are biogeochemistry and aquatic microbial ecology; more particularly, environmental controls on microbial transformations of nutrients, xenobiotics, and metals in freshwater and marine systems. She has worked in several extreme environments, including Antarctica, hypersaline lakes, deep-sea hydrothermal vents, and terrestrial deep-subsurface sites. Voytek has conducted deep biosphere studies at the Chesapeake Bay Impact Structure. and she served as the secretary of the AGU Biogeosciences section from 2004 to 2006 and was the Biogeosciences section meeting chair from 2003 to 2006.

Publications Voytek has been an author or co-author on over 70 peer-reviewed publications in interdisciplinary journals.

Her top 5 most cited publications are:

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Additional publications include:

A Synopsis of Chesapeake Bay research. With Ian Morris, Sarah E. Libourel Houde, and Wayne Harrell Bell. Center for Environmental and Estuarine Studies, University of Maryland System, 1988 Ominous future under the ozone hole: assessing biological impacts in Antarctica. Environmental Defense Fund, Wildlife Program, 1989 Relative abundance and species diversity of autotrophic ammonia-oxidizing bacteria in aquatic systems. University of California, Santa Cruz 1996 Molecular ecology of aquatic communities. With J. P. Zehr, 1999 Preliminary assessment of microbial communities and biodegradation of chlorinated volatile organic compounds in wetlands at Cluster 13, Lauderick Creek area, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. With Michelle M. Lorah and Tracey A. Spencer. U.S. Dept. of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, 2003