Microbes from extreme environments help us search for life on other planets like Mars, but they can also be used to advance the human exploration and settlement of space by producing useful products including mining metals.
Charles Cockell is Professor of Astrobiology at the University of Edinburgh. His scientific interests encompass microbial life in extreme environments, the habitability of extraterrestrial environments and the exploration and settlement of space. He established the UK Centre for Astrobiology at Edinburgh in 2011, a national node of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, which has led many scientific and educational projects. He has published many papers, academic and popular books including the Wiley-Blackwell textbook, ‘Astrobiology’, in its third edition. Recently, he organised and led the Life Beyond project with the Scottish Prison Service, which engaged prisoners in the design of human settlements in space, drawing on their experience of confinement. He has previously worked at NASA Ames Research Centre, the British Antarctic Survey, and The Open University. He received his first degree in biochemistry from Bristol University and his DPhil in molecular biophysics at the University of Oxford.