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Recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) have been announced, and include a number of astrobiologists who have been involved with research at the NASA Astrobiology Program. The list includes eighteen NASA researchers in total, as well as 296 additional federal researchers. The awards will be presented later this year at a ceremony in Washington DC.

Included among the recipients are:

- Giada Arney, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland – for far-reaching influence in predicting, observing, and communicating about habitability and the potential for life beyond Earth
- Laura Barge, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, California – for innovative fuel-cell based research
Shawn Domagal-Goldman, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center – for physical models of exoplanets
- David Smith, NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California – for excellence in microbial research in the stratosphere and on the International Space Station
- Jennifer Stern, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center – for Mars habitability and life detection
- John McCutcheon, University of Montana, National Science Foundation

PECASE Awards highlight early career scientists and engineers who have excelled in the their fields and have shown professional leadership, education, or community outreach. It is the highest honor given by the U.S. government to researchers in the early stages of their career.