Kennda Lynch facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Kennda Lynch
Lynch at a Mars analog field site in Pilot Valley, Utah, U.S.
Born	United States
Occupation	Astrobiologist, scientist, engineer
Scientific career
Fields	Astrobiology, science, engineering
Institutions	Universities Space. Research Association - Lunar and Planetary Institute, NASA Johnson Space Center, Georgia Institute of Technology/University of Montana, Jacobs Sverdrup/ Lockheed Martin Space Operations, International Space Station Program, Abbott Laboratories, The Boeing Company
Academic advisors	Dr. David Klaus (grad), Dr. Junko Munakata Marr (grad), Dr. John Spear (grad)

Kennda Lian Lynch is an American astrobiologist and geomicrobiologist. She is a scientist who studies life in extreme places, like those that might be found on other planets. Dr. Lynch has worked mostly with NASA.

She finds places on Earth that are similar to environments on other planets. Then, she creates models to help figure out what signs might show that life could exist there. Dr. Lynch also helps identify what "biosignatures" (signs of life) might look like on other planets.

Much of her research has happened in the Pilot Valley Basin in Utah, U.S. This area is like an ancient lakebed. Her work there helped NASA choose where to land its Perseverance Rover mission. The rover landed at a similar ancient lakebed on Mars called Jezero Crater.

Jim Green, who was NASA's Chief Scientist, called Dr. Lynch "a perfect expert" for the Perseverance rover mission. She is also helping to choose the right landing spot for NASA's first human mission to Mars. This mission is planned for 2035. Dr. Lynch has appeared on TV shows and in magazines like The New York Times and Scientific American. She was named one of the most inspiring Black scientists in the U.S. by Cell Press.

Early Life and Education

Kennda Lynch's parents, Marlene Cosby and Kenneth Lynch, both worked at Hamilton Sundstrand Corporation. This company worked on NASA's space shuttles. When Kennda was almost six, she saw the movie The Empire Strikes Back. This sparked her love for space. Her parents brought home pictures of space shuttles from their work, which made her even more interested.

Her mother was a big fan of Star Trek, and they watched the shows together. Kennda jokes that her mom takes less credit for her interest. She quotes her mom saying, "You were an alien from the beginning."

Kennda's mother was a Girl Scout and later led a Girl Scout council. Her father was a Boy Scout. Kennda was also a Girl Scout and even represented students at a national conference. She grew up spending a lot of time outdoors in nature.

High School and College Years

Kennda went to Boylan Catholic High School. In 1991, she was recognized as one of 40 "Young Americans" in her area. This award honored amazing teenagers. She graduated from high school in 1993.

She then went to the University of Illinois. She planned to study engineering. During a summer internship at Kennedy Space Center, she saw a space shuttle launch. This is where she discovered the field of Astrobiology, which combines space and biology.

In 1999, Kennda led a team for a NASA competition. Her team won a chance to do a science experiment on a special airplane. This plane, a KC-135, flies in a way that creates a feeling of weightlessness. In 1999, Kennda graduated with two majors: engineering and biology.

Advanced Degrees

Kennda earned a master's degree in aerospace engineering sciences. She studied at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Later, she received a special NASA fellowship. This helped her get her Ph.D. in environmental science and engineering from the Colorado School of Mines.

During her Ph.D. program, she started her research in Utah. She finished her Ph.D. in 2015. After that, she moved to Georgia Institute of Technology. There, she continued to study places on Earth that are similar to Mars.

Career in Space Science

Kennda Lynch first worked as an engineer at Abbott Laboratories. Then, she worked for Lockheed Martin and Jacobs Sverdrup for several years. These jobs were in Houston, Texas, at NASA Johnson Space Center.

She started as a project engineer for human space flight. She helped develop equipment for astronauts on the International Space Station. She met Kathy Thomas-Keprta, who studied a famous Mars meteorite. Through Kathy, Kennda met David S. McKay, a chief astrobiological scientist. Kennda then worked for him as a systems engineer. She helped create early versions of robots for missions to Mars.

While in graduate school, Kennda was a research assistant. Her work was supported by NASA through a special fellowship. This fellowship funded her research at the Colorado School of Mines.

Postdoctoral Research

In 2016, Dr. Lynch was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Montana. She then moved to Georgia Tech, where she continued her research until 2019. At Georgia Tech, she worked on astrobiology research. She was part of the Georgia Tech NASA Astrobiology Institute team.

Since 2019, Dr. Lynch has been a staff scientist for the Universities Space Research Association (USRA). She is based at Georgia Tech.

Teaching and Helping Others

Dr. Lynch teaches and guides students. She also works to encourage more diversity in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Early in her career at Johnson Space Center, she mentored high school and college students.

In graduate school, she taught classes and helped with a program for young students. Since 2013, she has been part of the SAGANet Virtual Mentoring Program. She also served as a NASA Student Ambassador. Dr. Lynch often explains space science to the public, both in person and through the media.

Research on Signs of Life

Dr. Lynch explains her research on biosignatures simply: "All life poops." This means all living things use energy and create waste. Some of these waste products can be preserved. They might appear as biosignatures, which could tell us that life exists or once existed.

Dr. Lynch looks for these biosignatures in places on Earth that are similar to other planets. This helps scientists learn what signs to look for when searching for life beyond Earth.

Pilot Valley and Mars

Much of her research has focused on special salts called perchlorates. She studies these in the Pilot Valley in Utah. Pilot Valley is an ancient lake basin that used to be very deep. It was once a freshwater lake. But as the climate changed, the water evaporated, and it became very salty.

Many lake sediments remain there, full of different kinds of microbes (tiny living things). Dr. Lynch looks for microbial DNA. She tries to understand what these microbe communities are like. She studies what they eat, how they get energy, and how they interact. Dr. Lynch found the first place on Earth where both perchlorates and microbes that "eat" perchlorates exist together.

She chose Pilot Valley for her Ph.D. research. Her work helped NASA choose Jezero Crater as the landing site for the 2020 Mars mission, Perseverance. Jezero Crater is also an ancient lakebed. Scientists expect it to have perchlorates. It would be a great place to find perchlorate-eating bacteria if there are signs of life on Mars.

Jezero Crater shows signs of an old river delta. This means water once flowed into the ancient lake there. Dr. Lynch believes that sediments from three different environments might be found there. These include sediments from streams, the ancient Jezero lake itself, and groundwater.

In 2020, Dr. Lynch won NASA's Astrobiology Program Early Career Collaboration Award. She is working with other scientists to analyze samples and create tools. These tools will help find signs of life in hidden areas on Mars.

Other Media Appearances

Dr. Lynch is a featured expert in several television shows about life on other planets:

• Explained: Extraterrestrial Life (2018)
• Glad You Asked: Will We Survive Mars? (2019)
• Alien Worlds: Janus (2020)

Images for kids

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  Lynch at a Mars analog field site in Pilot Valley, Utah, U.S.