NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI)

Instituto de Astrobiología Colombia (IAC)

Jorge Enrique Bueno Prieto, Director
Department of Biology
Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Bogota, Colombia
jorge.bueno@astrobiologia.org

http://www.astrobiologia.org

The NAI has accepted an Affiliate Partnership proposal from the Instituto de Astrobiologia in Bogota, Colombia. The goals of the Institute de Astrobiologia are:

• Contributing to scientific excellence, creativity and innovation for Astrobiology education and research in Latin America;
• Promoting interdisciplinarity in basic and engineering sciences; and
• Encouraging and inspiring children, young adults, and the general public in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) topics through Astrobiology.

The Instituto approaches these goals by:

• Promoting education and research in Astrobiology in schools and universities throughout Colombia;
• Developing research projects in Colombia’s scientific centers;
• Training teachers in the interdisciplinary methods of Astrobiology; and
• Strengthening Astrobiology in Latin America.

The Instituto has partnership agreements with:

• Universidad de Antioquia—Institute of Physics;
• The Colombian Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics of extreme Environments (Gebix); and
• Parque Explora, an interactive science center in Medellin

The NAI and the Instituto de Astrobiologia envision working together initially in three areas: (1) programs to engage and train students and young researchers in Astrobiology; (2) the development of Spanish-language astrobiology materials for use in the United States and in Latin America; and (3) microbiology and related research on organisms from extreme environments.