Astrobiology Institute members selected

WASHINGTON, May 9 (UPI) -- NASA has awarded grants to four research teams that will become new members of its Astrobiology Institute.

The new multidisciplinary teams are led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the California Institute of Technology, Montana State University-Bozeman and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

For the first 18 months of research, each team will receive $350,000 in funding. The five-year average grant size is approximately $7 million per team.

"These teams have proposed exciting research that is complementary to work being done by other (Astrobiology Institute) members," said Institute Director Carl Pilcher. "The selection of these teams forms an excellent foundation for entering the institute's second decade."

Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe. In 1998, NASA founded the Astrobiology Institute, a virtual research institution designed to stimulate and support a multidisciplinary field of research and education as part of NASA's overall science portfolio.

The teams bring the Astrobiology Institute's membership to 16, with the more than 500 scientists on the teams working at nearly 150 universities and other research institutions, including numerous international affiliates.