Dirk Schulze-Makuch (born 1964) is a professor at the Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics at the
Technical University Berlin, Germany and Adjunct Professor at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Washington State University, Pullman, WA. He is best known for his publications on
extraterrestrial life, being coauthor of five books on the topic: The Cosmic Zoo: Complex Life on Many Worlds (2017), A One Way Mission to Mars: Colonizing the Red Planet (2011), We Are Not Alone: Why We Have Already Found Extraterrestrial Life (2010), Cosmic Biology: How Life could Evolve on Other Worlds (2010), and Life in the Universe: Expectations and Constraints (2004, 2008, 2018). In 2012 he published with
David DarlingMegacatastrophes! Nine Strange Ways the World Could End. In 2013 he published the second edition of his science fiction novel Alien Encounter. Together with
Paul Davies he proposed in 2010 exploration of
Mars by a one-way trip to the planet.[1]
Education and career
His upbringing was in Giessen, Germany, where he received his Diplom-Degree (M.S.) in Geology from
Justus Liebig University in 1991. In 1996 he obtained his Ph.D. in Geosciences from the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. After having worked as Senior Project Hydrogeologist at Envirogen, a Princeton-based research and consulting firm, for which he investigated subsurface hydrocarbon spills, he became in 1997 Adjunct Professor at the
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. In 1998 he joined the
University of Texas at El Paso as assistant professor, investigating microbe and chemical transport in
groundwater, and microbial interaction in a planetary environment. From there he joined
Washington State University in 2004: first as Associate Professor, since 2010 as Professor at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, with focus on astrobiology and planetary habitability. Since 2013 he is a professor at the
Technical University Berlin (Germany) and led as Principal Investigator the European Union – funded
ERC Advanced Grant project on the “Habitability of Martian Environments” from 2013 to 2019.[2] In 2019 he has been awarded an ERC Proof of Concept Grant.[3]
The work of Schulze-Makuch has received much attention. It has been the subject of TV programs on the BBC, the National Geographic and the Discovery Channel, and of numerous articles in magazines such as New Scientist, The Guardian and Der Spiegel.
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Schulze-Makuch, D. (1992). "Rammner's Current Line Perturbation Method as used to prospect in an early Roman Marching-Camp". Journal of Applied Geosciences. 11: 75–86.
^
António, M.R.S.; Schulze-Makuch, D. (2009). "The immune system as key to cancer treatment: triggering its activity with microbial agents". Bioscience Hypotheses. 2 (6): 388–392.
doi:
10.1016/j.bihy.2009.08.003.
Dirk Schulze-Makuch (born 1964) is a professor at the Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics at the
Technical University Berlin, Germany and Adjunct Professor at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Washington State University, Pullman, WA. He is best known for his publications on
extraterrestrial life, being coauthor of five books on the topic: The Cosmic Zoo: Complex Life on Many Worlds (2017), A One Way Mission to Mars: Colonizing the Red Planet (2011), We Are Not Alone: Why We Have Already Found Extraterrestrial Life (2010), Cosmic Biology: How Life could Evolve on Other Worlds (2010), and Life in the Universe: Expectations and Constraints (2004, 2008, 2018). In 2012 he published with
David DarlingMegacatastrophes! Nine Strange Ways the World Could End. In 2013 he published the second edition of his science fiction novel Alien Encounter. Together with
Paul Davies he proposed in 2010 exploration of
Mars by a one-way trip to the planet.[1]
Education and career
His upbringing was in Giessen, Germany, where he received his Diplom-Degree (M.S.) in Geology from
Justus Liebig University in 1991. In 1996 he obtained his Ph.D. in Geosciences from the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. After having worked as Senior Project Hydrogeologist at Envirogen, a Princeton-based research and consulting firm, for which he investigated subsurface hydrocarbon spills, he became in 1997 Adjunct Professor at the
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. In 1998 he joined the
University of Texas at El Paso as assistant professor, investigating microbe and chemical transport in
groundwater, and microbial interaction in a planetary environment. From there he joined
Washington State University in 2004: first as Associate Professor, since 2010 as Professor at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, with focus on astrobiology and planetary habitability. Since 2013 he is a professor at the
Technical University Berlin (Germany) and led as Principal Investigator the European Union – funded
ERC Advanced Grant project on the “Habitability of Martian Environments” from 2013 to 2019.[2] In 2019 he has been awarded an ERC Proof of Concept Grant.[3]
The work of Schulze-Makuch has received much attention. It has been the subject of TV programs on the BBC, the National Geographic and the Discovery Channel, and of numerous articles in magazines such as New Scientist, The Guardian and Der Spiegel.
^
Schulze-Makuch, D. (1992). "Rammner's Current Line Perturbation Method as used to prospect in an early Roman Marching-Camp". Journal of Applied Geosciences. 11: 75–86.
^
António, M.R.S.; Schulze-Makuch, D. (2009). "The immune system as key to cancer treatment: triggering its activity with microbial agents". Bioscience Hypotheses. 2 (6): 388–392.
doi:
10.1016/j.bihy.2009.08.003.