Penelope Boston
American speleologist
title: "Penelope Boston" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["american-astrobiologists", "geomicrobiologists", "year-of-birth-missing-(living-people)", "living-people", "american-women-geologists", "american-speleologists", "space-advocates", "university-of-colorado-boulder-alumni", "new-mexico-institute-of-mining-and-technology-faculty", "20th-century-american-geologists", "21st-century-american-geologists", "20th-century-american-women-biologists", "21st-century-american-women-scientists", "american-women-academics"] description: "American speleologist" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penelope_Boston" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American speleologist ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox scientist"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Penelope Boston |
| image | Penelope Boston lecturing on Subsurface Astrobiology Cave Habitats on Earth, Mars, and Beyond.webp |
| caption | Boston lecturing on Astrobiology |
| birth_date | |
| death_date | |
| workplaces | National Cave and Karst Research Institute |
| NASA Astrobiology Institute | |
| alma_mater | University of Colorado Boulder |
| thesis_title | |
| thesis_url | |
| thesis_year | 1985 |
| website | |
| :: |
| name = Penelope Boston | image = Penelope Boston lecturing on Subsurface Astrobiology Cave Habitats on Earth, Mars, and Beyond.webp | image_size = | alt = | caption = Boston lecturing on Astrobiology | birth_date = | birth_place = | death_date = | death_place = | death_cause = | other_names = | residence = | citizenship = | nationality = | fields = | workplaces = National Cave and Karst Research Institute NASA Astrobiology Institute | patrons = | education = | alma_mater = University of Colorado Boulder | thesis_title = | thesis_url = | thesis_year = 1985 | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | website = | footnotes =
Penelope J. Boston is a speleologist and astrobiologist. She was associate director of the National Cave and Karst Research Institute in Carlsbad, New Mexico, along with founding and directing the Cave and Karst Studies Program at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro. Among her research interests are geomicrobiology of caves and mines, extraterrestrial speleogenesis, and space exploration and astrobiology generally.
In the mid-1980s, Boston (then a graduate student at the University of Colorado Boulder) was one of the founders of the Mars Underground and helped organize a series of conferences called The Case for Mars.
Biography
She has a B.S. in microbiology, geology, and psychology, and a M.S. in microbiology and atmospheric chemistry. She completed her Ph.D. from University of Colorado Boulder in 1985. During 2002–2004, she was Principal Investigator on the Caves of Mars Project, which, among other things, studied the effects on mice of an atmosphere rich in argon, and "flat crops" that might be grown in Martian caves.
She developed the concept of small jumping robots for Mars exploration. She gave a TEDtalk about the likelihood of life on Mars in 2006.
Her interest is in extremophiles (organisms which prefer or thrive in the extremes of altitude, cold, darkness, dryness, heat, mineralized environments, pressure, radiation, vacuum, variability, or weightlessness) which may be found in caves and karst on Earth, and she thinks should be looked for in equivalents of other objects in space from asteroids to planets.
An only child of theatrical parents, she writes poetry reflective of her world travel and uncommon specialty. In 2010 she was featured in Symphony of Science. She continues to work with NASA on the Atacama Field Expedition.
She grew up in a non-traditional childhood: her parents were travelling performers, so she travelled widely during childhood. This influenced her perspective and how she relates to exploration.
Bibliography
- ; held May 26–29, 1993, at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.
References
References
- NASA Astrobiology Institute. "The NASA Astrobiology Institute Concludes Its 20-year Tenure". [[NASA]].
- "Penelope (Penny) Boston – Profile of Notable New Mexico Geologists".
- (2008-11-28). "National cave institute in New Mexico to build visitor center". Foster's Daily Democrat.
- "Personal Profile of Speleogenesis Network Member: Penelope Boston". Commission on Karst Hydrogeology and Speleogenesis of the Union International of Speleology.
- Easterbrook, Gregg. (1986-09-03). "Possibility of mission to Mars has many obstacles to success". [[Palm Beach Post]].
- (2000). "Life in the Extremes: An Interview With Dr. Penelope Boston". Oracle ThinkQuest.
- Zubrin, Robert. (2003). "Mars on Earth: the adventures of space pioneers in the high Arctic". J.P. Tarcher/Penguin.
- (2004). "System Feasibility Demonstrations of Caves and Subsurface Constructed for Mars Habitation and Scientific Exploration". USRA Reports.
- (2003). "Human utilization of subsurface extraterrestrial environments". Gravitational and Space Biology Bulletin.
- Markey, Sean. (2006-07-24). "Mars's Next Explorers: Jumping, Baseball-Size Robots?". [[National Geographic Society.
- (2005-12-21). "Mars Attack! December 21, 2005". Seed magazine.
- (2006). "Penelope Boston says there might be life on Mars". [[The Sapling Foundation]].
- (April 2009). "Santa Fe Poetry". Broadside.
- (2006). "Atacama Field Expedition". NASA.gov.
- Plait, Phil. (2010-06-09). "The Symphonic Case for Mars". [[Discover (magazine).
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