Staff

Director: Professor N.C. Wickramasinghe


Full time head of Centre and coordinator of research projects. Chandra Wickramasinghe is Professor of Applied Mathematics and Astronomy at Cardiff University and together with Fred Hoyle has been the pioneer of panspermia in the 20th century. His main astronomical interests are the physics and chemistry of interstellar dust grains and in the optical characterisation of interstellar and cometary dust. He was the first to propose an organic polymeric composition for cosmic dust in 1974. His other interests include the modelling of the cosmic microwave background in non-standard cosmologies. (Picture by K.G. Davies]

Professor W.M. Napier


Honorary Professor at the Cardiff University since 2001. Bill Napier is a leading figure in the the dynamics and physics of comets, and a pioneer of the modern versions of catastrophism. He aslo works on the origin and evolution of interplanetary dust, the effects of dust and small-body impacts on the Earth, and the analysis of extragalactic redshifts.

Professor Gil V. Levin

Gil Levin was Principal Investigator of NASA’s 1976 Viking Mission to Mars, is one of the unquestioned pioneers of modern astrobiology. 

In 1997 Levin announced his considered opinion that his 1976 Viking Labeled Release (LR) life detection experiment found living microorganisms in the soil of Mars. This conclusion has only been strengthened in recent months: Levin says: “Objective application of the scientific process to 21 years of continued research and to new developments on Mars and Earth forced this conclusion. Of all the many hypotheses offered over the years to explain the LR Mars results, the only possibility fitting all the relevant data is that microbial life exists in the top layer of the Martian surface.”

Professor Milton Wainwright

Milton Wainwright of Sheffield University is a microbiologist who is interested novel aspects of microbial growth and metabolism.   His work on the role of silicon in microbiology and on growth under extremely low nutrient conditions leads him naturally to an interest in astrobiology.   

Milton’s interest in panspermia led us to collaborate with him over several years.  Milton was part of CCAB’s joint programme with the Indian Space Research Organisation on microbiological sampling the stratosphere.

Co-Director: Professor A.K. Campbell


Tony Campbell is Professor in Medical Biochemistry at the University of Wales College of Medicine. He heads the Intracellular signalling research group there and is one of the world's leading authorities on bioluminescence. In the formal setting up of the Centre Prof. Campbell was instrumental in forging a link between Cardiff University and te Medical School in this venture.

Hon. Research Fellow: Dr. Max K. Wallis


Max Wallis is an international authority on comets. He has made significant contributions to our understanding of their structure and geophysics, and to interaction with the solar wind of comets as well as Mars and Venus.  He contributed to the IUE satellite programme for comet studies and was Co-investigator for the European Giotto Mission to Halley's comet. Currently he is a team member, with Chandra Wickramasinghe, of the Radio Science Investigation team for the ROSETTA mission to comet P/Chuyumov-Gerasimenko.  His recent research activity has covered analysing cosmic dust from the upper stratosphere for cometary particles, including bio-fossil structures, modelling icy habitats on Mars and comets, exotic biology link to dinosaur extinction, and impact-ejection as mechanism for spreading life on interplanetary and interstellar scales.


Hon. Research Fellow: Dr. Shirwan Al-Mufti

Shirwan Al-Mufti, working in the Biochemistry laboratories in Cardiff obtained the first relevant laboratory spectra of desiccated microorganisms for comparison with astronomical spectra. His data, when modelled together with the first astronomical infrared spectra of the galactic centre source GC-IRS7, showed that the panspermia model has empirical validity. Similar comparisons with the infrared spectra of comet Halley showed that cometary dust has a component that could not be distinguished from bacteria.

Hon. Research Fellow: Dr. Stephen Coulson

Stephen was the founder research student for the Astrobiology Centre. He obtained his PhD in 2004, for research into the dynamics and heating of micron-sized meteoroids in the Earth's atmosphere, together with studies into the infrared spectra of organic, interstellar dust. Stephen's theoretical work on atmospheric entry of meteoroids provides an explanation for the survival of the organic dust samples recovered during the balloon experiments. Stephen is currently working as a consultant for Aldersgate Partners LLP. His research interests are: the mechanics of meteoroid disintegration; radiation scattering by small particles; and statistical mechanics.

Hon. Research Fellow: Dr. Janaki Wickramasinghe

Janaki obtained her PhD in 2008 with a thesis entitled "The role of comets in panspermia". Her publications (including collaborations with Bill Napier) on the effects of comet collisions on life-bearing planets are widely cited. Her research interests continue to be in the general area of panspermia, but she has also other research interests and publications in the general area of astrophysics.

Kani Rauf


Kani works on laboratory astrophysics, obtaining spectra of biomaterial for comparison with astronomical spectra

Rajkumar Gangappa


Rajkumar works on problems concerning the identification of the microorganism involved in the red rain of Kerala

Site maintained by N.C. Wickramasinghe - e-mail wickramasinghe@cf.ac.uk.
Last updated 21 August 2009