Dr. Christopher McKay, a Planetary Scientist from the Sapce Science Division, NASA Ames, Dr. Margaret McLean, Director fo Health Care and Biotechnolgoy Program for the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and Dr. Margaret Race, Principal Scientist at SETI Instyitute will be giving a talk on Astrobiology, Exploration, and Ethics: Challenges Raised by Life in Space.

Dr. Christopher P. McKay, Planetary Scientist with the Space Science Division of NASA Ames. Chris received his Ph.D. in AstroGeophysics from the University of Colorado in 1982 and has been a research scientist with the NASA Ames Research Center since that time. His current research focuses on the evolution of the solar system and the origin of life. He is also actively involved in planning for future Mars missions including human exploration. Chris been involved in research in Mars-like environments on Earth, traveling to the Antarctic dry valleys, Siberia, the Canadian Arctic, and the Atacama desert to study life in these Mars-like environments. His was a co-I on the Titan Huygen's probe in 2005, the Mars Phoenix lander misson for 2007, and the Mars Science Lander mission for 2009.

For more information, please visit his website.

With her combined background in science and ethics, Margaret R. McLean has become one of the region's top commentators and consultants on the ethical dimension of advances in medicine and biotechnology.

An advisor to the California Senate Select Committee on Genetics from 1999 until 2002, she has written extensively on the ethical implications of genetics and cloning.

In the health care field, McLean oversees the Center's partnership with O'Connor Hospital in San Jose, Seton Medical Center in Daly City, St. Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy and Hospice of the Valley. In that capacity, she consults with health care professionals and patients on the ethics of such issues as end-of-life care and provides presentations to the community. She also serves as director of O'Connor's Applied Ethics Center.

For moreinformation, please visit her website.

Dr. Margaret Race is concerned with protecting the planets. Actually, protecting all the planets: but especially Earth and Mars. Her work focuses on the scientific, technical, legal and societal issues of ensuring that missions to the Red Planet and other solar system bodies do not either inadvertently bring terrestrial microbes along, which would complicate our search for indigenous extraterrestrial life, or return any microbes to Earth. Recently, she’s done a research study on the environmental impact reviews and public communication associated with high-containment biosafety labs – the type that will eventually be used for the quarantine of returned samples from Mars.

For more information, please visit her website.