Sherwood Chang,’58

Works for NASA dealing with exploring whether there has been/is life beyond earth. So, in his lab he had rocks from the moon…and ways to evaluate data from space to consider whether life is or could be there. He sometimes describes himself as a historian…with a long perspective.

Plaque mounted by the

Sherwood Chang conference room

SHERWOOD CHANG

Exobiology Conference Room

Dr. Sherwood Chang played a keystone role in Exobiology and space during his career at NASA Ames Research Center from 1967 to 1998. He was first Exobiology team leader, then Chief of the Exobiology Branch from the early 1970’s until 1998. His distinguished research accomplishments include discoveries about carbon and other life-related elements and compounds in lunar regolith, meteorites, prebiotic environments and the cosmos. As a physical organic chemist Sherwood was among the leading intellectual figures who united cosmochemistry, origins of life research, and molecular biology to create the field of astrobiology that ultimately emerged at the dawn of the twenty-first century. This conference room is dedicated to perpetuate the historic dialog that Sherwood Chang maintained for more than a quarter of a century along these hallways and in the broader NASA community.

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