Background
Donald Brownlee was born on December 21, 1943, in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is the son of Donald Eugene and Geraldine Florence (Stephen) Brownlee.
2006
Professor Donald Brownlee and Doctor Peter Tsou show a Stardust sample tray to the journalists.
Berkeley, CA, USA
Brownlee studied at the University of California, Berkeley, where he got a Bachelor of Science degree in 1965.
Seattle, WA 98195, USA
Brownlee earned a Ph. D. at the University of Washington in 1971.
Donald Brownlee at work.
Stardust Science Team, including Donald Brownlee.
Donald Brownlee shows a model of the satellite.
Donald Brownlee and a sample of a meteorite.
Donald Brownlee got the J. Lawrence Smith Medal from the National Academy of Sciences.
Donald Brownlee got the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement.
Donald Brownlee is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Donald Brownlee is a member of the International Astronomical Union.
Donald Brownlee is a member of the American Astronomical Society.
Donald Brownlee is a member of the Meteoritical Society.
(What determines whether complex life will arise on a plan...)
What determines whether complex life will arise on a planet or even any life at all? Questions such as these are investigated in this groundbreaking book. In doing so, the authors synthesize information from astronomy, biology, and paleontology, and apply it to what we know about the rise of life on Earth and to what could possibly happen elsewhere in the universe. Everyone who has been thrilled by the recent discoveries of extrasolar planets and the indications of life on Mars and the Jovian moon Europa will be fascinated by Rare Earth and its implications for those who look to the heavens for companionship.
https://www.amazon.com/Rare-Earth-Complex-Uncommon-Universe/dp/0387952896/?tag=2022091-20
2000
(Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee, a geologist and an ast...)
Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee, a geologist and an astronomer respectively, are in the vanguard of the new field of astrobiology. Combining their knowledge of how the critical sustaining systems of our planet evolve through time with their understanding of how stars and solar systems grow and change throughout their own life cycles, the authors tell the story of the second half of Earth’s life.
https://www.amazon.com/Life-Death-Planet-Earth-Astrobiology/dp/0805075127
2003
Donald Brownlee was born on December 21, 1943, in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is the son of Donald Eugene and Geraldine Florence (Stephen) Brownlee.
Brownlee studied at the University of California, Berkeley, where he got a Bachelor of Science degree in 1965. Later he earned a Ph. D. from the University of Washington in 1971.
Donald Brownlee began his career as an associate professor of astronomy at the University of Washington, Seattle, where he held this position from 1970 to 1977. Later he began to work at California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, as an associate professor of geochemistry from 1977 to 1982. Brownlee became a Professor of astronomy at the University of Washington, Seattle, in 1989, and holds this position at the moment. He is also is a consultant to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) starting from 1976. As one of the members of the Stardust Science Team, he develops equipment for space dust collecting. Donald Brownlee works as a distinguished visiting professor at Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago.
Brownlee also co-authored several books. He collaborated with Peter Douglas Ward in the writing of Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe, in which the co-authors put forth the theory that while microbial life may exist throughout the universe, only Earth possesses the conditions necessary for the development of complex life. Their “Rare Earth Hypothesis" is “the paradox that life may be nearly everywhere but complex life almost nowhere." They also predict the future of Earth, taking into account the effects of another ice age, global warming, and other trends that they feel will ultimately return Earth to a barren state.
Brownlee and Ward write of the factors that have enabled life to flourish on Earth, including the fact that we are the right distance from our sun, enjoy a stable environment, and are not threatened by astronomical phenomena that could pour radiation down on our planet. They note that we have recently realized the effect Jupiter has in protecting Earth, pulling space debris into its atmosphere so that it never reaches the smaller planet. The geology of Earth is also a factor: a collection of microenvironments, from lakes to deserts, in which a variety of animal life is able to survive. They list ten historical incidents for potential extinction that have threatened our planet and note that some forms of life managed to survive each, adding that there are no guarantees such luck will hold.
In The Life and Death of Planet Earth: How the New Science of Astrobiology Charts the Ultimate Fate of Our World Brownlee and Ward restate their thesis from Rare Earth and continue to predict a future for The earth that ends in its destruction. The authors note that we are experiencing a brief interlude (11,000 years) between ice ages. Eventually, glaciers will again cover much of the planet, driving humans to the equator and spurring efforts to colonize in space. They predict that in a quarter of a billion years, the continents will come together to form a single desert-like continent and that the greenhouse effect will destroy, first, green plants, then most animal life. Several billion years later, the earth would be incinerated by an expanding sun.
(What determines whether complex life will arise on a plan...)
2000(Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee, a geologist and an ast...)
2003Quotations: "We've undergone a very heavy level of scrutiny by review boards because of Genesis and because of the Columbia accident... It was a cultural shift in NASA, that you're now required to understand all the risks."