Sunday Evening
Prebiotic chemistry in Extraterrestrial settings
(Discussion Leader: Max Bernstein)

Tracing organic matter from dark clouds to the early Earth
Pascale Ehrenfreund (Lieden)

The role of solar ultraviolet radiation on the atmospheric photochemistry on Titan
Jim Ferris (RPI)

Monday Morning
Macromolecules: “RNA world, catalysis, and evolution” (Discussion Leader: Leslie Orgel)

How hard is it to make substrates hold still for metabolic ribozymes?
Donald Burke (Indiana)

Polymerization of genetic biopolymers and their compartmentalization
Pierre Allain-Monard (Harvard)

To be Announced-Peter Unrau (Simon Fraiser)

Monday Evening
The origins of homochirality
(Discussion: Leader Bob Hazen)

Nucleation, crystallization and enantiomeric enhancement of DL-amino acids
David Deamer (UC Santa Barbara)

A Sequential Scenario for the Origin of Biological Chirality
Radu Popa (JPL)

Tuesday Morning
Ancient Metabolisms-Ancient Environments
(Discussion Leader: James Scott)

TBA-Ken Nealson (USC)

Anaerobic Fe(II) oxidation: the most ancient form of phototrophy?-Diane Newman (Caltech)

Microbial Growth on Minimal Energy and Carbon Sources
Frank Robb (Maryland)

Tuesday Evening
Molecular Evolutionary History of Organisms (Discussion Leader: Christopher House)

To be Announced
Carrine Blank (Washington U.)

The deep sea: microbial ecology and discovery in dens of antiquity
Ginny Edgecomb (WHOI)

Wednesday Morning
Life in Extreme Environments (Discussion Leader: Marilyn Fogel)

TBA-Jill Banfield (Cal-Berkeley)

Is there a relationship between life in extreme environments and the origin of life?
John Baross (UW)

Life on a Eutectic
James Scott (CIW)

Wednesday Evening
Climate Evolution and the Early Earth Record
(Discussion Leader: Rob Rye)

Paleoenvironmental sedimentary analyses as key to understanding processes of primary production and respiration of biomass in the early Precambrian
Nic Beukes (RAND University)

Environmental Upheaval in the early Paleoproterozoic and
the Timing of the Rise of Oxygen
Lee Kump (Penn State University)

Thursday Morning
Earth’s Earliest Life and Biosignatures
(Discussion Leader: Jen Eigenbrode)

Orphans and Strange Steroids in a Paleoproterozoic Purple SeaJochen Brocks (Harvard)

The Archean fossil wars: why nobody won
Roger Buick (UW)

Multiple Sulfur Isotope (32S-33S-34S-36S) Systematics in the Early Rock Records
Shuhei Ono (CIW)

Thursday Evening
Post-Dinner Speaker
Judith Herzfeld (Brandeis University)
Characterization of Potentially Biogenic Polymers by Solid State NMR-HCN polymers and Art Weber’s Sugar World Polymers

! There might be changes !
   The listings on this web page will be updated as soon as new information becomes available.

Online Applications at the GRC - Web Page
Select Origin of Life in the menu and follow instructions.

If you are a grad student or postdoctoral fellow and would like to apply for travel funds, please apply to Janet Siefert (siefert@rice.edu). Deadline for travel fund application is December 24, 2004. Successful applicants will be notified shortly thereafter.

The next Origin of Life Gordon Conference will take place on January 16-21, 2005 at Holiday Inn in Ventura, CA. Please note this date in your calendar and, if possible, try to reserve some funds to allow yourself and graduate students or post docs, who might be working with you, to attend.

Research on the Origin of Life takes place in a wide variety of disciplines ranging from Astronomy, Astrochemistry, and Prebiotic Chemistry via in vitro Evolution and Microbial Geobiology, to Molecular Phylogenetics and Comparative Genomics. The Origin of Life GRC conferences provide an excellent opportunity for scientist new to this area of interdisciplinary research to get an update on new and exciting developments that recently occurred in these different areas.

In planning the 2005 conference we relied heavily on your suggestions to provide pertinent information on the latest most interesting developments form the different disciplines. Thanks to all of you who sent in their suggestion for topics and speakers; we could cover all of the suggested topics in oral presentations (see the preliminary program), there are only so many topics that can be covered in oral presentations during one week. As is customary for GRC conferences, there will be no events scheduled in the afternoon, thus the poster area will provide ample opportunity for additional formal and informal discussions and presentations.

We look forward to hearing from you, and to see you in Venture in 2005,

Sincerely

George D. Cody (chair) and Janet L. Siefert (vice chair)