The regular monthly meeting of the Astronomical Society of the Palm Beaches will take place on Wed July 3rd beginning at 7PM. Those attending in person should go to the Cox Science Center and Aquarium. Instructions for attending by Zoom are published in the July newsletter.
Our guest speaker is Dr. Amy Williams. Dr. Amy Williams is an assistant professor of geology at the University of Florida. She is an astrobiologist and geobiologist, and her research interests include the formation and preservation of physical and molecular biosignatures in terrestrial environments as an analog for putative biosignature formation on Mars. She has been a member of the NASA Curiosity rover science team since 2009, and currently works with the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument team as a Participating Scientist to explore the distribution of organic molecules on Mars’ surface. She is also a Participating Scientist on NASA’s Perseverance rover mission, which is collecting samples that can one day be returned to Earth. She received a 2021 UF Research Promotion Initiative award and the UF Provost’s Excellence Award for Assistant Professors. She also works toward increasing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the geosciences and STEM.