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Roger Everett Summons (born 11 June 1946) is the Schlumberger Professor of Geobiology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Professor of Geobiology in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. Summons’ research spans biogeochemistry, geobiology, and
astrobiology Astrobiology, and the related field of exobiology, is an interdisciplinary scientific field that studies the origins, early evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe. Astrobiology is the multidisciplinary field that investig ...
. His work employs organic geochemical methods to examine the lipid chemistry of modern and ancient microbes, the isotopic signatures of climate change, and the evolution and origins of life. Summons was elected a member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...
in 2020.


Education and early life

Roger Summons was born on 11 June 1946 in
Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
, Australia, and attended Lithgow High School. He earned his B.Sc. (Honours Class I) in 1968 and Ph.D. in 1971 in organic chemistry from the Wollongong University College of the University of New South Wales. This institution is now the University of Wollongong. Summons' doctoral supervisors were professors Emery Gellert and J. Ellis. Following graduation, Summons completed a two-year fellowship in the Genetics Department,
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
from 1972 to 1973 before starting postdoctoral and research fellowships in the Research School of Chemistry at the Australian National University. At Stanford, Summons worked under the direction of Alan Duffield and Joshua Lederberg.


Research and career

Before joining MIT as a professor of geobiology in 2001, he held appointments at the Australian National University’s Research School of Biological Sciences from 1977 to 1983, and at Geoscience Australia, Canberra from 1983 to 2001, where he led a research team that focused on the characterization of the biogeochemical carbon cycle and the nature and habitat of Australian petroleum. Summons is particularly known for the application of organic geochemical techniques to sediments of
Precambrian The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of the ...
age and modern microbes in order to increase the understanding of the early evolution of life on Earth. Summons is a member of the editorial boards of the peer-reviewed scientific journals
Astrobiology Astrobiology, and the related field of exobiology, is an interdisciplinary scientific field that studies the origins, early evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe. Astrobiology is the multidisciplinary field that investig ...
, Geobiology, and Palaeoworld since their inception. He also served as associate editor of the peer-reviewed scientific journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta from 1995 to 2006. From 2003 to 2007, Summons served on three committees of the US National Research Council including the Committee on Origin and Evolution of Life, the Committee on Limits of Life, and the Committee on Mars Astrobiology. Summons served as NASA co-chair of the organic contamination panel for the
Mars 2020 Rover Mars 2020 is a Mars rover mission forming part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program that includes the rover ''Perseverance'', the small robotic, coaxial helicopter '' Ingenuity'', and associated delivery vehicles. Mars 2020 was launched from Ear ...
, and was a member of the NASA Astrobiology Institute Executive Council from 2008 to 2017. During that time, he led the Foundations of Complex Life, the MIT NASA Astrobiology Institute team which interrogated the environmental, ecological, and genetic factors that lead to the evolution of complex life. In addition to actively teaching both graduate and undergraduate courses at MIT, Summons is engaged as a collaborator with the search for organics on Mars as a member of the SAM Team of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission. He is also an investigator in the Simons Collaboration on the Origins of Life (SCOL).


Selected papers

*Molecular biosignatures: generic qualities of organic compounds that betray biological origins *Ancient biomolecules: their origin, fossilization and significance in revealing the history of life *Assessing the distribution of sedimentary C40 carotenoids through time *Rapid oxidation of Earth's atmosphere 2.33 billion years ago *Paleoproterozoic sterol biosynthesis and the rise of oxygen *The ‘Dirty Ice’ of the McMurdo Ice Shelf: Analogues for biological oases during the Cryogenian *Organic matter preserved in 3-billion-year-old mudstones at Gale crater *Steroids, triterpenoids and molecular oxygen *2-Methylhopanoids as biomarkers for cyanobacterial oxygenic photosynthesis *Chlorobiaceae in Palaeozoic seas - Combined evidence from biological markers, isotopes and geology


Honors and awards

*1987 – 1998> - Fellow, Royal Australian Chemical Institute *1998 - Fellow, Australian Academy of Science *2002 - Australian Organic Geochemistry Medal *2003 -
Alfred E. Treibs Alfred E. Treibs (1899–1983) was a German organic chemist who is credited with founding the area of organic geochemistry. He received his PhD under Hans Fischer at the Technical University of Munich. Fischer had received the Nobel Prize in Che ...
Award of the Geochemical Society *2005 - Halpern Medal, University of Wollongong *2006 - Fellow, American Geophysical Union *2008 - Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Award *2008 - Fellow, Royal Society One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: *2008 - Moore Distinguished Scholar, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology *2009 - Doctor of Science, Honoris Causa, University of Wollongong *2012 - Fellow, American Academy of Microbiology *2013 - Honorary Fellow, Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg (Institute for Advanced Study) *2014 - Inaugural Fellow, Australian and New Zealand Society for Mass Spectrometry *2015 - Cox visiting professor, School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University (through 2016) *2020 - Fellow, National Academy of Sciences (NAS)


References


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Summons, Roger Everett Living people University of Wollongong alumni Fellows of the American Geophysical Union Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences 1946 births Planetary scientists Biogeochemists Astrobiologists