William Irvine assigned as Co-Chief Editor

Friday, January 30, 2015

Professor Emeritus William Irvine of the Astronomy Department is the Co-Chief Editor of the soon to appear Encyclopedia of Astrobiology, being produced by the publisher Springer. The science of astrobiology is concerned with the origin, evolution, and distribution of life in the universe. It is an extremely interdisciplinary field, combining aspects of physics, astronomy, chemistry, geoscience, biology, microbiology, planetary science, and the history of science. The new, 2nd edition, of the Encyclopedia of Astrobiology contains some 2000 entries by more than 400 authors from institutions around the world, the articles ranging from short entries of 200-500 words to overviews of more than 6000 words. The Encyclopedia will be produced in both 4 volumes of printed text and in an on-line version. Professor Irvine has been selected to be on the editorial board of the Japanese journal Progress in Earth and Planetary Science.