Conference Format
Given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we will be hosting a fully virtual conference, which will include live oral and poster sessions and breaks throughout the day, including an 80-minute lunch break.
| Monday, October 25 | Live Oral and Poster Sessions |
| Tuesday, October 26 | Live Oral and Poster Sessions |
| Wednesday, October 27 | Live Oral and Poster Sessions |
| Thursday, October 28 | Live Oral Sessions and Closing Address |
Registered attendees will receive an e-mail from Houston Meeting Info before the workshop with connection information.
Inclusion and Accessibility
Real-time captioning will be provided for the oral and poster sessions.
All conference attendees are encouraged to add their personal gender pronouns to their nameplates on the teleconference system. The American Astronomical Society offers this resource to learn more about personal gender pronouns.
Coffee Socials
Science conferences enable unstructured conversations that facilitate new ideas and collaborations. We want to help you do just that! We will host two free-form discussion periods, which we are calling “coffee socials,” during each conference day, one in the morning (9:45–10:00 a.m. CDT) and one in the evening (4:40–5:00 p.m. CDT).
Keynote Speakers
Our conference is intended to be multi- and interdisciplinary with the goal of instigating crosstalk among the disciplines that study brines in the planetary and astrobiological sciences. As such, we are expecting a broad audience from diverse disciplines. To facilitate discussions across disciplines, we will host three keynote presentations to provide a “state-of-the-field” talk on the broad topics of brine stability and salt identification, brine-facilitated geological processes, and life in brines. Each keynote presentation will occur first thing in the morning.
Dr. Jennifer Hanley
Planetary Scientist, Lowell Observatory
Date/Time: Monday, October 25 at 10:00 a.m. CDT
Title: Fantastic Brines and Where to Find Them
Dr. Julie Castillo-Rogez
Principal Scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
Date/Time: Tuesday, October 26 at 10:00 a.m. CDT
Title: Role of Brines in the Geological Evolution of Icy Bodies: Observations and Predictions
Dr. Mary A. Voytek
Senior Scientist for Astrobiology, NASA SMD
Date/Time: Thursday, October 28 at 10:00 a.m. CDT
Title: Halophiles as Models for Extraterrestrial Life
Invited Speakers
We are hosting three invited speakers to provide focused talks on current and future missions of particular interest to the brine community and further introduce us to opportunities for collaborative research in the NASA Astrobiology program.
Dr. Germán Martínez
Staff Scientist, Lunar and Planetary Institute (USRA)
Date/Time: Wednesday, October 27 at 10:00 a.m. CDT
Title: Brine Studies Enabled Through Surface-Based Measurements on Mars
Dr. Cyril Grima
Research Associate, University of Texas Institute for Geophysics
Date/Time: Wednesday, October 27 at 10:20 a.m. CDT
Title: The Europa Clipper Mission and the Search for Brine
Dr. Alison Murray
Research Professor, Desert Research Institute
Date/Time: Thursday, October 28 at 4:15 p.m. CDT
Title: Charting the Course to Ocean Worlds
