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Laurie Barge

Photo of Laurie Barge

Address:

4800 Oak Grove Drive
M/S 183-301

Pasadena, CA 91109

Phone:

818.393.8209

Fax:

818.393.4445

Curriculum Vitae:

Click here

Member of:

Laboratory Studies

Scientist

Biography

Dr. Laurie Barge is a Research Scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She studies the emergence of life and ways to search for life elsewhere, and is interested in all worlds where water/rock interactions might have occurred including early Earth, Mars, and Ocean Worlds (e.g. Europa, Enceladus, Ceres). Dr. Barge co-leads the JPL Origins and Habitability Laboratory, an astrobiology research team which studies how life emerges and can be detected on planets. Dr. Barge is also the HiRISE Investigation Scientist for NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and a Participating Scientist on NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory. She is a steering committee member for the NASA Astrobiology program’s Research Coordination Networks for Ocean Worlds (NOW) and Life Detection (NFoLD). For her astrobiology research Dr. Barge has received the NASA Early Career Public Achievement Medal, the JPL Lew Allen Award, and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. Dr. Barge received her B.S. in Astronomy and Astrophysics from Villanova University and her Ph.D. in Geological Sciences from the University of Southern California. After graduate school she was a postdoctoral fellow at JPL/Caltech and then with the NASA Astrobiology Institute. In her free time she enjoys running, cycling, and plays the fiddle in a local Irish music group.

Education

  • Ph.D., Geological Sciences, University of Southern California (2009)
  • B.S., Astronomy and Astrophysics (Minor in Physics), Villanova University (2004)

Professional Experience

  • NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
    • 2015 – present: JPL Research Scientist, Laboratory Studies
    • 2018 – present: Co-founder / co-lead, JPL Origins and Habitability Laboratory
    • 2022 – present: Participating Scientist, Mars Science Laboratory
    • 2015 – present: HiRISE Investigation Scientist, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
    • 2013 – 2015: NASA Astrobiology Institute Postdoctoral Fellow (Origin of metabolism)
    • 2010 – 2013: Caltech Postdoctoral Scholar (Hydrothermal vents on ocean worlds)
    • 2005 – 2006: JPL intern (Landing site analysis for Mars missions)
  • University of Southern California (2004-2009)
    • Graduate Research Assistant / Teaching Assistant, Dept. of Earth Sciences
  • Marathon Oil Company (2008)
    • Petrophysics Intern (zeolites in petroleum reservoirs)
  • NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (2004)
    • NASA Academy Intern (carbon isotope analysis of Mars analog samples)
  • Villanova University (2002-2004)
    • Research Assistant, Dept. of Astronomy and Astrophysics (eclipsing binary stars)

Community Service

Dr. Barge is Co-PI of the NSF project "Pathways in STEM: Cross-Sector Partnerships, Experiential Learning, and Professional Development", a program led by Cal Poly Pomona (CPP) which aims to increase the number of diverse students who are retained and successfully complete STEM degrees. In the Pathways program, CPP and JPL will join forces with multiple STEM institutions to provide experiential learning; mentoring; education and career advice; development of science communication skills; and community building for students. The approach for the Pathways program is built upon lessons learned from a successful NSF-funded program that Dr. Barge was Co-PI of from 2015-2019, "Bridge to the Geosciences (BTTG)" (led by Citrus College). The goal of the BTTG project was to increase the number of diverse and traditionally underserved community college students who were exposed to education and career opportunities in the geosciences and, through this exposure, opted to transfer to a baccalaureate degree program in geoscience. The BTTG data showed that the student participants gained tremendous benefit from exposure to new career options and being part of a supportive peer community.

Dr. Barge also leads JPL/NASA funded outreach projects with colleagues at Cal State LA and Cal Poly Pomona. Recently we were awarded a NASA SMD Bridge Program Seed Funding award, “Diversifying Student Pipelines in STEM: Environmental Pollution Reduction Inspired by Planetary Science”; which increases student retention by creating bridges between wastewater treatment and planetary science research (this work was featured at JPL and in the LA Times). This builds on previous work for example “Peer Mentoring for MSI Student Pathways in STEM” (2022 – 2023), which conducted a pilot round of a peer-to-peer mentoring program for students undergoing the community college to 4-year degree transfer, and the Bachelors or Master’s degree transfer to Ph.D. This builds on our 2021 – 2022 project “Developing Student Pipelines in Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences” where we focused on developing ways to more strongly relate planetary science with environmental science and civil engineering, so that students in CSULA's College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology (ECST) who are interested in career opportunities related to planetary science can gain skills for future internship opportunities.

Dr. Barge is also active in astrobiology outreach and science communication. She was featured on NASA's "Ask an Astrobiologist" series and NASA's Gravity Assist podcast, and her research has been featured in various outlets including CBS "Mission Unstoppable", PBS, NOVA, and Discovery Channel.

Research Interests

Dr. Barge's research interests are understanding the origin of life on early Earth, differentiating abiotic from biological organic chemistry in planetary environments, and studying hydrothermal vents in the lab and in the field. She leads various astrobiology related projects including: studying the origin of metabolism in hydrothermal vents, redox cycling of phosphorus and nitrogen in geological systems, prebiotic chemistry on Mars and ocean worlds, and field studies of terrestrial hydrothermal vents as planetary analogs. Dr. Barge mentors undergraduate / graduate students and postdocs interested in these topics; see her research website for details about currently funded projects and how to join the team.

Selected Awards

  • PI, NASA Habitable Worlds, “Feeding Enceladus’ Deep Biosphere” (2024 -2027)
  • NASA Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Medal (2024)
  • PI, NASA Exobiology, “Simulating the Emergence of Metabolism in an Alkaline Hydrothermal Vent” (2023 – 2026)
  • JPL Polaris Award for Exceptional Contributions to DEIA (2023)
  • Rosalind Franklin Society Award in Science for Astrobiology (2023)
  • 2021 Scialog Signatures of Life in the Universe Fellow “Mars Sample Return: Connecting Martian Environmental Geochemistry to Returned Samples”
  • Co-PI, NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) Hispanic Serving Institutions program, "Pathways in STEM: Cross-Sector Partnerships, Experiential Learning, and Professional Development to Build Pathways to STEM Careers" (2020-2025)
  • PI, JPL Strategic Research & Technology Development, "Understanding abiotic organic chemistry driven by minerals in Ceres' and Enceladus' oceans" (2020-2022)
  • 2020 Scialog Signatures of Life in the Universe Fellow “Synthetic Mineral Geo-Electrodes for Detecting Life on Ocean Worlds”
  • Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) for innovative fuel cell-based research (2019)
  • NASA Early Career Public Achievement Medal (2019)
  • PI, NASA Habitable Worlds, "Phosphorus Redox Chemistry on Icy and Rocky Planets" (2018-2021)
  • Science-PI, NASA PSTAR, "In-Situ Vent Analysis Divebot for Exobiology Research" (2018-2021)
  • JPL Lew Allen Award for Excellence, for pioneering research on the application of electrochemistry to studies of the origin and emergence of life (2018)
  • PI, JPL Topical R&TD, "Planetary Habitability Test Beds" (2017-2018)
  • PI, NASA/NSF Ideas Lab for the Origins of Life, "Becoming Biotic: Recapitulating the Origin of Ancient Metabolic Pathways" (2017-2020)
  • Investigation Lead / Co-I, NASA Astrobiology Institute CAN-7, "Icy Worlds: Astrobiology at the Water-Rock Interface and Beyond" (2015-2019)
  • Co-PI, NSF IUSE, "GP-EXTRA - Bridge to the Geosciences for Community College Students" (2015-2018)

Selected Publications

Publications:

[italic] = Student / postdoc under my supervision

  1. Marlin T.C., Weber J.M., Sheppard R.Y., Perl S., Diener D., Baum M., Barge L. M. (2024) Chemical gardens as analogues for prebiotic chemistry on ocean worlds. CHEM, in press.
  2. Barge L.M. and Fournier G. (2024) Considerations for Detecting Organic Indicators of Metabolism on Enceladus. Astrobiology, 24,3,328-338.
  3. Goldman A.D., Weber J.M., LaRowe D.E., Barge L.M. (2023) Electron Transport Chains as a Window into the Earliest Stages of Evolution. PNAS, 120 (34) e2210924120. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2210924120
  4. Rodriguez L. E., Weber J. M., Barge L. M. (2024) Evaluating Pigments as a Biosignature: Abiotic / Prebiotic Synthesis of Pigments and Pigment Mimics in Planetary Environments. Astrobiology, 24, 8, 767-782.
  5. Testón-Martínez S., Barge L. M., Eichler J., Sainz-Díaz C. I., Cartwright J. H. E. (2024) Experimental modelling of the growth of tubular ice brinicles from brine flows under sea ice. The Cryosphere, 18, 2195–2205.
  6. Martinez E., Rodriguez L., Sheppard R., Zhang Y., Cid C., Khodayari A., Barge L.M. (2023) Nitrate reactivity in iron (oxy)hydroxide systems: Effect of pH, iron redox state, and phosphate. ACS Earth and Space Chemistry, 7, 11, 2287–2297.
  7. Carman N.A., Hausrath E.A., Celestian A., Chavez J., Hermis N., LaRowe D.E., Fraeman A., Sheppard R.Y., Adcock C.T., Tschauner O., Rampe E.B., Price R., Barge L. M. (2024) Fe/Mg-silicate chemical gardens as analogs to silicate-rich hydrothermal chimneys on early Earth and Mars. ACS Earth and Space Chemistry, 8, 10, 1982–1996.
  8. Barge, L.M. and Price, R.E. (2022) Diverse geochemical conditions for prebiotic chemistry in shallow-sea alkaline hydrothermal vents. Nature Geoscience, 15, 976–981.
  9. Barge L. M., Flores E., Weber J. M., Fraeman A. A., Yung Y. L., VanderVelde D., Martinez E., Castonguay A., Billings K., Baum M. M. (2022) Prebiotic reactions in a Mars analog iron mineral system: effects of nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia on amino acid formation. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 336, 469-479.
  10. Barge L.M., Rodriguez L.E., Weber J.M., Theiling B.P. (2022) Determining the “Biosignature Threshold” for Life Detection on Biotic, Abiotic, or Prebiotic Worlds. Astrobiology, 22, 4, 481-493.
  11. Dickson J., Martinez E., Pagano J. J., Hudson R., Perl S. M., Barge L. M. (2022) Incorporating Microbes into Laboratory-grown Chimneys for Hydrothermal Microbiology Experiments. ACS Earth and Space Chemistry, 6, 4, 953–961.
  12. Weber J.M., Henderson B.L., LaRowe D.E., Goldman A.D., Perl S.M., Billings K., Barge L.M. (2022) Iron-sulfur minerals drive NAD+ reduction under prebiotic Earth conditions. Astrobiology, 22, 1, 25-34.
  13. Barge L.M. and Rodriguez L.E. (2021) Life on Enceladus? It depends on its origin. Nature Astronomy, 5, 740-741.
  14. Flores, E., Martinez, E., Rodriguez, L. E., Weber, J. M., Khodayari, A., Barge, L. M. (2021) Effects of Amino Acids on Phosphate Adsorption onto Iron (Oxy)hydroxide Minerals under Early Earth Conditions. ACS Earth and Space Chemistry, 5, 5, 1048–1057.
  15. Weber J.M. and Barge L.M. (2021) Iron-Silicate Chemical Garden Morphology and Reactivity with Alpha-Keto Acids. ChemSystemsChem, 3, 3, e2000058.
  16. Omran A., Oze C., Jackson B., Mehta C., Barge L. M., Bada J., Pasek M. A. (2021) Phosphine Generation Pathways on Rocky Planets. Astrobiology 21, 10, 1264-1276.
  17. Barge L. M., Flores E., Weber J., Baum M. M., VanderVelde D., Castonguay A. (2020) Effects of Geochemical and Environmental Parameters on Abiotic Organic Chemistry Driven by Iron Hydroxide Minerals. JGR-Planets, 125, 11, e2020JE006423.
  18. Aguirre V. P., S. Jocic, P. Webster, C. Buser, J. A. Moss, L. M. Barge, Y. Tang, Y. Guo, M. M. Baum. (2020) Synthesis and Characterization of Mixed-valent Iron Double Layer Hydroxides (“Green Rust”). ACS Earth and Space Chemistry, 5, 1, 40–54.
  19. Hermis N., LeBlanc G., Barge L. M. (2021) Simulation of Prebiotic Early Earth Hydrothermal Chimney Systems in a Thermal Gradient Environment. Journal of Visualized Experiments, doi: 10.3791/61789.
  20. Chin K., Pasalic J., Hermis N., Barge L. M. (2020) Chemical Gardens as Electrochemical Systems: In-situ Dynamic Characterization of Simulated Prebiotic Hydrothermal Chimneys by Impedance Spectroscopy. ChemPlusChem, 85(12):2619-2628.
  21. Jones J.-P., Firdosy S. A., Barge L. M., Bescup J. C., Perl S. M., Zhang X., Pate A. M., Price R. E. (2020) 3D Printed Minerals as Astrobiology Analogs of Hydrothermal Vent Chimneys. Astrobiology, 20, 12, 1405-1412.
  22. Hudson R., de Graaf R., Rodin M., Lane N., McGlynn S.E., Ohno A., Yamada Y.M.A., Nakamura R., Barge L.M., Braun D., Sojo V. (2020) CO2 reduction driven by a pH gradient. PNAS 117 (37) 22873-22879.
  23. Barge L.M., Jones J.-P., Pagano J., Martinez E., Bescup J. (2020) 3-Dimensional Analysis of a Simulated Prebiotic Hydrothermal Chimney. ACS Earth and Space Chemistry, 4, 1663-1669.
  24. Hooks M. R., Webster P., Weber J. M., Perl S., Barge L. M. (2020) Effects of Amino Acids on Iron-Silicate Chemical Garden Precipitation. Langmuir, 36, 21, 5793–5801.
  25. Maltais T. R., VanderVelde D., LaRowe D., Goldman A. D., Barge L. M. (2020) Reactivity of Metabolic Intermediates and Cofactor Stability Under Model Early Earth Conditions. Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres, 50, 35–55.
  26. Barge L.M., Flores E., Baum M.M., VanderVelde D., Russell M.J. (2019) Redox and pH Gradients Drive Amino Acid Synthesis in Iron Oxyhydroxide Mineral Systems. PNAS 116 (11) 4828-4833.
  27. Barge L.M. (2019) Considering planetary environments in origin of life studies. Nature Communications 9, 5170.
  28. Wang Q., Barge L. M., Steinbock O. (2019) Microfluidic Production of Pyrophosphate Catalyzed by Mineral Membranes Over Steep pH Gradients. Chemistry - A European Journal, 25, 18, 4732-4739.
  29. Hendrix A.R., Hurford T.R., Barge, L.M., Bland M.T., Bowman, J.S., and 23 co-authors (2019) The NASA Roadmap to Ocean Worlds. Astrobiology, 19, 1, DOI: 10.1089/ast.2018.1955.
  30. Barge L. M., Krause F. C., Jones J.-P., Billings K., Sobron P. (2018) Geo-Electrodes and Fuel Cells for Simulating Hydrothermal Vent Environments. Astrobiology, 18 (9), 1147-1158.
  31. Barge L. M. and White L.M. (2017) Experimentally Testing Hydrothermal Vent Origin of Life on Enceladus and Other Icy/Ocean Worlds. Astrobiology 17, 9, 820-833.
  32. Barge L.M., Cardoso S.S.S., Cartwright J.H.E., Doloboff I.J., Flores E., Macías-Sánchez E., Sainz-Díaz C.I., Sobrón P. (2016) Self-Assembling Iron Oxyhydroxide / Oxide Tubular Structures: Laboratory-Grown and Field Examples from Rio Tinto. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A, 472, 2195, 20160466.
  33. Barge L.M., Branscomb E., Brucato J.R., Cardoso S.S., Cartwright J.H., Danielache S.O., Galante D., Kee T.P., Miguel Y., Mojzsis S., Robinson K.J., Russell M.J., Simoncini E., Sobron P. (2017) Thermodynamics, Disequilibrium, Evolution: Far-From-Equilibrium Geological and Chemical Considerations for Origin-Of-Life Research. Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres 47, 1, 39-56.
  34. Steinbock O., Cartwright J. H. E., Barge L. M. (2016) The Fertile Physics of Chemical Gardens. Physics Today, 69(3), 44, doi: 10.1063/PT.3.3108. (Featured on cover of March 2016 issue)
  35. Barge L. M., Abedian Y., Russell M. J., Doloboff I. J., Cartwright J. H. E., Kidd R. D., Kanik I. (2015) From Chemical Gardens to Fuel Cells: Generation of Electrical Potential and Current Across Self-Assembling Iron Mineral Membranes. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 54, 28:8184-8187.
  36. Barge L. M., S. S. S. Cardoso, J. H. E. Cartwright, G. J. T. Cooper, L. Cronin, A. De Wit, I. J. Doloboff, B. Escribano, R. E. Goldstein, F. Haudin, D. E. H. Jones, A. L. Mackay, J. Maselko, J. J. Pagano, J. Pantaleone, M. J. Russell, C. I. Sainz-Díaz, O. Steinbock, D. A. Stone, Y. Tanimoto, N. L. Thomas. (2015) From Chemical Gardens to Chemobrionics. Chemical Reviews, 115 (16), pp 8652–8703.
  37. Barge L. M., Abedian Y., Doloboff I. J., Nunez J. E., Russell M. J., Kidd R. D., Kanik I. (2015) Chemical Gardens as Flow-Through Reactors Simulating Natural Hydrothermal Systems. Journal of Visualized Experiments, 105, DOI: 10.3791/53015.
  38. Burcar B. T., Barge L. M., Trail D., Watson E. B., Russell M. J., McGown L. B. (2015) RNA Oligomerization in Laboratory Analogues of Alkaline Hydrothermal Vent Systems. Astrobiology, 15(7): 509-522.
  39. Barge L. M., T. P. Kee, I. J. Doloboff, J. M. P. Hampton, M. Ismail, M. Pourkashanian, J. Zeytounian, M. M. Baum, J. Moss, C.-K. Lin, R. D. Kidd, I. Kanik (2014) The Fuel Cell Model of Abiogenesis: A New Approach to Origin-of-Life Simulations. Astrobiology, 14(3):254-70.
  40. Russell, M. J., Barge, L. M., et al. (2014) The Drive to Life on Rocky and Icy Worlds. Astrobiology,14, 4, 308-343.
  41. Barge, L. M., Doloboff, I. J., Russell, M. J., VanderVelde, D., White, L. M., Stucky, G. D., Baum, M. M., Zeytounian, J., Kidd, R., Kanik, I. (2014) Pyrophosphate Synthesis in Iron Mineral Films and Membranes Simulating Prebiotic Submarine Hydrothermal Systems. Geochimica Cosmochimica Acta, 128, 1-12.
  42. Barge L.M., Doloboff I. J., White L. M., Stucky G. D., Russell M. J., Kanik I. (2012) Characterization of Iron-Phosphate-Silicate Chemical Garden Structures. Langmuir, 28 (8), pp 3714-3721 (Featured on cover of Feb 28, 2012 issue)

Projects

MRO - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
MSL - Mars Science Laboratory