874: Searching for Signs of Life on Mars and Beyond - Dr. Amy Williams

Dr. Amy Williams is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences and Assistant Director of the Astraeus Space Institute at the University of Florida. She is an astrobiologist who builds instruments and analyzes data from other worlds to help us try to answer the question of whether there is life on other planets beyond Earth. She is particularly interested in investigating whether there was once life on Mars. When Amy's not working, Amy enjoys spending time with her family and her cats. Some of her favorite pastimes include birdwatching, hiking, walking, and gardening. Amy received her B.S. in Earth & Environmental Science from Furman University, her M.Sc. in Earth and Planetary Sciences from the University of New Mexico, and her Ph.D. in Geology from the University of California, Davis. Afterwards, Amy accepted a position as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. She served on the faculty at Towson University before joining the faculty at the University of Florida in 2018. She has received several NASA group achievement awards for her work with the Curiosity and Perseverance rover teams, and she was awarded the Provost's Excellence Award for Assistant Professors from the University of Florida. She received the American Geophysical Union's Award for Advancing Inclusive Excellence in STEM with the GeoSPACE Field Program, and she was a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellow and a Scialog: Signatures of Life in the Universe Fellow. In this interview, Amy shares more about her life and science.