{"id":638474,"date":"2024-03-29T14:23:59","date_gmt":"2024-03-29T18:23:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/?post_type=image-article&p=638474"},"modified":"2024-03-29T14:24:00","modified_gmt":"2024-03-29T18:24:00","slug":"exobiology-deputy-branch-chief-melissa-kirven-brooks","status":"publish","type":"image-article","link":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/image-article\/exobiology-deputy-branch-chief-melissa-kirven-brooks\/","title":{"rendered":"Exobiology Deputy Branch Chief Melissa Kirven-Brooks"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"\" class=\"hds-media hds-module wp-block-image\"><div class=\"margin-left-auto margin-right-auto nasa-block-align-inline\"><div class=\"hds-media-wrapper margin-left-auto margin-right-auto\"><figure class=\"hds-media-inner hds-cover-wrapper hds-media-ratio-fit \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/melissakirvenbrooks-acd24-0032-002.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1365\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/melissakirvenbrooks-acd24-0032-002.jpg?w=2048\" class=\"attachment-2048x2048 size-2048x2048\" alt=\"A woman with shoulder-length flowing brown hair smiles gently at the camera. She is wearing earrings, a gold necklace, and a white blouse with blue patterned spots. The blue sky, green trees and grass, and a building are blurred but visible behind her.\" style=\"transform: scale(1); transform-origin: 50% 50%; object-position: 50% 50%; object-fit: cover;\" block_context=\"nasa-block\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/melissakirvenbrooks-acd24-0032-002.jpg 7143w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/melissakirvenbrooks-acd24-0032-002.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/melissakirvenbrooks-acd24-0032-002.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/melissakirvenbrooks-acd24-0032-002.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/melissakirvenbrooks-acd24-0032-002.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/melissakirvenbrooks-acd24-0032-002.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/melissakirvenbrooks-acd24-0032-002.jpg?resize=400,267 400w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/melissakirvenbrooks-acd24-0032-002.jpg?resize=600,400 600w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/melissakirvenbrooks-acd24-0032-002.jpg?resize=900,600 900w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/melissakirvenbrooks-acd24-0032-002.jpg?resize=1200,800 1200w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/melissakirvenbrooks-acd24-0032-002.jpg?resize=2000,1333 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" loading=\"eager\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<p>\u201cOne of my proudest, happiest moments was watching an early-career researcher, who I met first when she was a graduate student conducting research and working on some new, innovative equipment. She was going to give a demonstration to a group of visitors, and as happened with me many times, everything works perfectly until the people show up \u2013 and the equipment wouldn’t do anything. So she took a few deep breaths and explained what we would have seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAnd then she actually became a NASA Postdoctoral Program fellow. And I watched her scientific growth and her confidence increase, and I watched her research transition through different areas until \u2026 she finished her postdoc and she got a fellowship to do some additional work in another institution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAnd then we were both at a conference one time, and she pulled me over and she said, \u2018Melissa, I just got a call,\u2019 and she got this enormous grant \u2026 and I realized, \u2018She has launched!\u2019 \u2026 It was cool to watch the positive things. It was important for people to be there for her, to help her through the difficult times and tell her she could do it and [say], you know, ‘Just give it some more time.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cShe has become just like a force. She’s become one of the leaders in the astrobiology community, and I got to participate in all of that. And I’m so happy, and I know that there are going to be a ton more people who will follow in her footsteps, and I hope that I can interact with them also.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c\u2026 I’ve just seen such tremendous things happen since I’ve been part of the Astrobiology Program, and that’s why I’m pretty confident we’re going to find life elsewhere, because there are just so many brilliant people working on this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2014 Melissa Kirven-Brooks, Exobiology Deputy Branch Chief and Future Workforce Lead of the NASA Astrobiology Program, NASA\u2019s Ames Research Center<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Image Credit: NASA \/ Brandon Torres<br>Interviewer: NASA \/ Michelle Zajac<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/gallery\/faces-of-nasa\/\">Check out some of our other Faces of NASA.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cOne of my proudest, happiest moments was watching an early-career researcher, who I met first when she was a graduate student conducting research and working on some new, innovative equipment. She was going to give a demonstration to a group of visitors, and as happened with me many times, everything works perfectly until the people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":219,"featured_media":638915,"template":"","meta":{"nasa_hds_core_meta_l10n":"en-US","nasa_hds_core_meta_article_editor":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_article_contacts":[],"nasa_hds_core_meta_article_topic":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_linked_locations":[],"nasa_hds_core_meta_article_related_articles":[],"hds_migrate_meta_pr_release_id":"","hds_migrate_meta_pr_release_type":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_location_x":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_location_y":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_gallery_images":[]},"categories":[],"news-tags":[],"internal-terms":[],"coauthors":[10473],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Exobiology Deputy Branch Chief Melissa Kirven-Brooks","url":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/image-article\/exobiology-deputy-branch-chief-melissa-kirven-brooks\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/image-article\/exobiology-deputy-branch-chief-melissa-kirven-brooks\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/melissakirvenbrooks-acd24-0032-002.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/melissakirvenbrooks-acd24-0032-002.jpg"},"articleSection":"General","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Michelle Zajac"}],"creator":["Michelle Zajac"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"NASA","logo":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/themes\/nasa\/assets\/images\/nasa-logo.svg"},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2024-03-29T18:23:59Z","datePublished":"2024-03-29T18:23:59Z","dateModified":"2024-03-29T18:24:00Z"},"rendered":"<meta name=\"parsely-title\" content=\"Exobiology Deputy Branch Chief Melissa Kirven-Brooks\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-link\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/image-article\/exobiology-deputy-branch-chief-melissa-kirven-brooks\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-type\" content=\"post\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-image-url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/melissakirvenbrooks-acd24-0032-002.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-pub-date\" content=\"2024-03-29T18:23:59Z\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-section\" content=\"General\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-author\" content=\"Michelle Zajac\" \/>","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/nasa.gov\/p.js"},"read_time":2,"featured_image":{"id":638915,"file":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/melissakirvenbrooks-acd24-0032-002.jpg","title":"Exobiology Deputy Branch Chief Melissa Kirven-Brooks","alt":"A woman with shoulder-length flowing brown hair smiles gently at the camera. She is wearing earrings, a gold necklace, and a white blouse with blue patterned spots. The blue sky, green trees and grass, and a building are blurred but visible behind her.","caption":"\u201c\u2026 I've just seen such tremendous things happen since I've been part of the Astrobiology Program, and that's why I'm pretty confident we're going to find life elsewhere, because there are just so many brilliant people working on this.\u201d \u2014 Melissa Kirven-Brooks, Exobiology Deputy Branch Chief and Future Workforce Lead of the NASA Astrobiology Program, NASA\u2019s Ames Research Center"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/image-article\/638474"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/image-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/image-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/219"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/image-article\/638474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":638919,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/image-article\/638474\/revisions\/638919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638474"},{"taxonomy":"news-tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-tags?post=638474"},{"taxonomy":"internal-terms","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal-terms?post=638474"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=638474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}