Southwestern Oregon Community College will start the Geology Lecture Series with “The Search for Water and Life on Mars” by Dr. John Grotzinger. The talk will begin at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 6, at the Hales Center for the Performing Arts on the Coos Bay campus, 1988 Newmark Ave.

Grotzinger will focus on evidence of water — and thus prospects for life — revealed by the Mars Exploration Rover Mission, part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. In addition to his work on the 2004 Rover mission, Grotzinger recently was appointed chief scientist of an upcoming Mars Rover mission that will land in 2009.

Grotzinger earned his bachelor’s degree from Hobart College, master’s degree from the University of Montana and doctorate from Virginia Tech, followed by three years of post-doctoral studies as a member of the research staff at the Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University. Grotzinger was a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology before being appointed Waldemar Lingren Distinguished Scholar by MIT in 1998 and Robert E. Shrock Professor of Geology in 2001. In 2005, Grotzinger moved to the California Institute of Technology, where he is the Fletcher Jones Professor of Geology.

Grotzinger is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and has received the Donath Medal of the Geological Society of America, the Henno Martin Medal of the Geological Society of Namibia and the Jubilee Medal of the Geological Society of South Africa. In March 2007, he was awarded the Charles Doolittle Walcott Medal from the National Academy of Sciences. The Walcott medal is awarded every five years to a scientist who studies the fundamental interaction between life and earth’s atmosphere, hydrosphere and geosphere, as well as the potential for similar interactions between extraterrestrial life, should it prove to exist, and environmental conditions on other planets.

The Geology Lecture Series is sponsored by Methane Energy Corporation and SOCC. For more information, those interested can call Ron Metzger at 888-7216 or e-mail rmetzger@socc.edu.