Understanding Planetary Habitability Through Analogue Research

About Scott Perl, Ph.D.

Download CV (updated February 2024)

I am a scientist formally at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, specializing in life in extreme environments and their preservation within the mineral and rock record. I am also a research affiliate in Mineral Sciences at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum. 

I study how microbial life influences the geologic record in selective environments where the relationship between biology and geology are interwoven. Geobiology allows for a fundamental understanding of mineral-microbial interactions to determine how life can persist here on Earth as well as Mars, Europa, and other solar system bodies. My team and I focus on life in hypersaline environments where evaporite mineralogy has recorded ancient and dried lake beds where life may have resided. We also study the preservation of microbial community activity, life detection in the mineral-rock record, and further understanding how to validate biogenic signatures and markers over geologic time on other planets and moons. 

At JPL, my roles have included: the Investigation Scientist for the CRISM instrument on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), staff scientist for the Ocean Worlds Life Surveyor (OWLS), science planner for the Mars Science Laboratory, and Principal Investigator, Co-Investigator, and science lead on life detection concepts.

I earned my B.S. in Geology and B.E. in Material Sciences from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. I used the guidance from my M.S. in Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering (Systems Engineering & Human Factors focus) to learn how to build an astrobiology-driven mission to Mars from Purdue University. I received my Ph.D. in Geobiology & Geological Sciences from the University of Southern California. Since 2005, I have been working on various planetary missions including the Mars Exploration Rover (MER, Opportunity ) mission, the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL, Curiosity ), the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission, and various life detection instrument concepts.