Lynn J. Rothschild

Lynn Justine Rothschild
FLS^[1]
Lynn Justine Rothschild FLS
Born	May 11, 1957 (age 67); New York, New York, United States of America
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Yale University (BS), Indiana University (MA), Brown University (PhD)
Known for	Extremophiles at NASA, and founding the synthetic biology program for NASA
	Scientific career
Fields	Biology
Institutions	NASA’s Ames Research Center, Brown, Stanford, UC Santa Cruz
Thesis	Assessment of evolutionary relationships among protistan phyla and a blue-green prokaryote by comparison of the enzyme ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase. (1985)
Doctoral advisor	Annette W. Coleman
Other academic advisors	Tracy Sonneborn, Susan Gerbi

Lynn Justine Rothschild FLS (born May 11, 1957) is an evolutionary biologist, astrobiologist and synthetic biologist at NASA's Ames Research Center,^[2]^[3]^[4] and is an adjunct professor at Brown University.^[5] She was a consulting Professor at Stanford University, where she taught Astrobiology and Space Exploration. At Ames, her research has focused on how life, particularly microbes, has evolved in the context of the physical environment, both on Earth and potentially beyond our planet's boundaries. Her research also explores the use of synthetic biology as an enabling tool for space travel.^[4] Since 2007, she has studied the effect of UV radiation on DNA synthesis, carbon metabolism and mutation/DNA repair in the Rift Valley of Kenya and the Bolivian Andes, and also in high altitude experiments atop Mount Everest, in balloon payloads with BioLaunch. She was the principal investigator of the first free-flyer synthetic biology payload which flew on the DLR EuCROPIS mission. In 2024, she received a Phase III NIAC grant to explore the use of fungi for constructing habitats on the Moon or Mars.^[6]

Rothschild graduated from Yale University in 1978 and earned a Ph.D. from Brown University in 1985.^[4]^[5] In addition to leading her research group at Ames, she serves as the Bio and Bio-Inspired Technologies, Research and Technology Lead for NASA Headquarters Space Technology Mission Directorate.^[4] Rothschild founded the Astrobiology Science Conferences and the International Journal of Astrobiology.^[4] From 2011-2019, she served a faculty Advisor for the Stanford-Brown iGEM teams, which utilized synthetic biology to advance NASA's mission objectives, including BioWires and a biodegradable drone.^[4]

Early life and education

Lynn Rothschild was born on May 11, 1957, in New York City.^[7] She lived in Riverdale until the age of eight, after which her family moved to Greenwich, Connecticut.^[7] Rothschild attributes her initial interest in science to an experience in the third grade when she first looked through a microscope. Recalling this moment in an interview, she stated, "The third day I saw an amoeba, and that was it–I was hooked! So I’ve wanted to be a protozoologist literally since I was eight years old."^[7]

Rothschild was an undergraduate student at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, where she studied biology.^[4]^[5] During her time at Yale, she was mentored by prominent figures in the fields of phylogeny and organismal biology, including G. Evelyn Hutchinson, John Ostrom, and Willard Harman.^[7] In her junior year, she met John Preer Jr., a ciliate geneticist from Indiana University who was on sabbatical at Yale.^[7] This encounter led Rothschild to pursue a Master's degree in Zoology at Indiana University, which she completed in 1981 under to supervision of Tracy Sonneborn, a renowned protozoan geneticist.^[4]^[7] Following Sonneborn's passing, Rothschild transferred to Brown University to continue her graduate studies.^[7]

At Brown, Rothschild joined the algal research lab of Annette W. Coleman, where she focused on chloroplast evolution and the isolation of RuBisCO.^[7] She earned her Ph.D. in 1985 with a dissertation titled "Assessment of evolutionary relationships among protistan phyla and a blue-green prokaryote by comparison of the enzyme ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase."^[4] Rothschild then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Brown in the laboratory of Susan Gerbi, where she conducted research on yeast and the evolution of ribosomal DNA.^[7]

NASA career and research

After completing her postdoctoral fellowship at Brown University, Rothschild was a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at NASA Ames Research Center from 1987 to 1990.^[4] During this period, she conducted fieldwork and investigated the evolution of microbial mats and carbon fixation.^[7] in 1997, Rothschild became a Research Scientist at NASA Ames and then became a Senior Scientist in the Space Sciences Branch in 2015.^[5]

Synthetic biology research and iGEM

Rothschild led the Synthetic Biology Program at NASA Ames from 2010 to 2011 and again from 2013 to 2015.^[5] She is also a member of the Build-a-Cell steering group, with interest in designing genomes and cells.^[8] In 2024, Rothschild was awarded a Phase III NIAC grant for her Mycotecture Off Planet project.^[6] This initiative focuses on leveraging fungi to create habitats for astronauts on long duration missions to the Moon and Mars.^[6] In addition to her work with mycotecture, Rothschild is also exploring the application of spore-forming bacteria to produce on demand medicine for astronauts.^[9]

Rothschild served as a faculty advisor for several Brown-Stanford teams competing in the international synthetic biology competition, iGEM.^[5]^[10] Notable projects she superviesed include:

Synthetic biology for Mars Exploration (2011)^[11]
Synthetic biology for astrobiology, including biomining (2012)^[12]
Synthetic biocommunication (2013)^[13]
Towards a Biodegradable UAS (2014), advised for the Stanford-Brown-Spelman iGEM team^[14]
BiOrigami (2015)^[15]
BioBalloon (2016)^[16]^[17]
Mars: getting there and staying there (2017)^[18]
Myco for Mars (2018), advised for the Stanford-Brown-RISD iGEM team^[19]

Filmography

Rothschild appeared on the 5th episode of the Youtube Original "The Age of A.I." in the episode called "How A.I. is searching for Aliens", released on January 15, 2020. She is credited as "Evolutionary and Synthetic Biology, NASA".^[20]