Alison Olcott

Alison came to the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters as part of the Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA). She leads the Exobiology Program, whose goal is to understand the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the Universe and the Habitable Worlds Program, whose goal to use knowledge of the history of the Earth and the life upon it as a guide for determining the processes and conditions that create and maintain habitable environments. She comes to NASA from the University of Kansas, where she is a Professor in the Geology Department with a research focus on astrobiology and chemical paleontology as well as making STEM more accessible and diverse.

Alison was a Postdoctoral Scholar at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, earned her doctorate in Earth Sciences from the University of Southern California and her Bachelor of Science, with honors, in Geophysical Sciences from The University of Chicago, with a stint building dinosaurs at the Smithsonian Natural Museum of History in-between. When not working she enjoys hanging out with her family as she knits science-themed hats.