The science team is responsible for determining the scientific objectives of the Northern Light mission, for the operation of instrumentation during the mission and for the analysis of the data returned from Mars.

The following sections list our team members and their interests in alphabetical order, from O to T.

Professor Peter Unrau (Co-I, Northern Light Bio-Sciences)
Peter Unrau is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at Simon Fraser University. He will assist in the biological investigation of Mars. Professor Unrau holds a Ph.D. in theoretical Physics from MIT and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Whitehead Biomedical Institute (1996-2000), where he investigated the catalytic ability of ribonucleic acid (RNA).

Professor Unrau’s current research focuses on the ability of RNA to perform the types of chemistry required to replicate nucleic acid. Evidence for such small molecule chemistry would greatly support current theories of early evolution that assume that RNA is capable of self-replication. Professor Unrau is also very interested in understanding the early geological and biological history of our solar system. Appropriate surface experiments on Mars could greatly increase our understanding of some of these complex issues and help to gain an understanding of very early life on Earth.

Professor Hohatollah Vali (Co-I, Northern Light Bio-Sciences)
Professor Vali is currently a Professor at McGill University. His research focuses on searching for biosignatures in extraterrestrial materials, which involves both biological and geochemical approaches.

Professor William Ward (Co-I, Atmospheric Science)
William Ward is a Professor of Physics at the University of New Brunswick. He has extensive space experience and is currently Co-I of a number of projects involving space-borne interferometer instruments used to investigate atmospheric dynamics. As a member of the Northern Light team, Professor Ward will use atmospheric measurements to diagnose the effects of waves and longer term, large scale transport. The data required for this analysis will be constituent data from the UV-visible spectrometer. This data will be augmented with other atmospheric observations where possible, and an effort will be made to collaborate with scientists involved in a Martian GCM.

Dr. Chris Woodworth-Lynas
Chris is a marine geoscientist with Guigné International Ltd. (Paradise, Newfoundland). Together with Jacques Guigné (Guigné International Ltd.) and Brian Pratt (University of Saskatchewan), Chris is investigating the theory of a Mars north polar ocean by analyzing surficial features that may have been formed in the past by the interaction of floating sea-ice keels with an ancient seafloor. For two decades, Chris has studied ice-keel scouring phenomena on earth. He has worked extensively on the morphology and mechanical processes involved in creating modern scour marks on the Canadian eastern continental shelf (Baffin Bay, Labrador Sea, Grand Banks) and with ancient examples preserved in exposed, frozen, seabed sediments in the Canadian Arctic (King William Island), in lake sediments of glacial Lake Agassiz (Manitoba), and in glacial Lake Ontario (Scarborough). Chris and Jacques are working with Brian Pratt on micro-palaeontological aspects of ice-scour sediments on Mars.

Dr. Robert E. Zee (Co-I, Northern Light Lander)
Robert Zee is Manager of the Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS), and, as a member of the Northern Light team, he will support rover development. Dr. Zee helped to establish the SFL in 1998. Since the inception of the SFL, Dr. Zee has been directing the lab, adopting the microspace-development philosophy to develop systems for space. He supervises a team of students and engineers who have developed the on-board computer, communications, structure and thermal subsystems for MOST (Microvariability and Oscillations of STars), Canada’s first microsatellite and first space-telescope mission. MOST is planned for launch in December 2002 on board a Rockot launch vehicle. Once in orbit, MOST will perform long-duration stellar photometry from space for the first time. In 2001, Dr. Zee initiated the Canadian Advanced Nanospace eXperiment (CanX) program, which involves graduate students in the building of Canada’s smallest satellites, or "picosats."