Brad Bebout Function: Microbial Ecologist Affiliation: NASA Ames Research Center Brad is a microbial ecologist working at Ames Research Center. He has been at NASA 10 years, having worked previously as a marine scientist. Most of his work at NASA has concentrated on understanding microbial mats in various extreme environments, including hot springs and hypersaline environments. Microbial mats are complex communities of microorganisms, usually dominated by cyanobacteria (blue green algae). More information is available at the educational web site Microbes@NASA and Brad's lab web site. Cyanobacteria may be extremely useful for life support functions in various exploration scenarios under consideration by NASA. Folks in Brad's lab are performing research on various ways in which cyanobacteria and microbial mats may be flown in small satellites and on planetary landers to evaluate their functioning in the space environment. With Pete Worden, Brad will be testing some of the hardware and measurement systems under consideration on Devon Island. They will be comparing measurements of photosynthetic efficiency of cyanobacteria (made by Erich Fleming, Adrienne Frisbee and Lee Bebout in a greenhouse at Ames) with measurements made on the same cyanobacteria transported in the same hardware to Devon Island.

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