Las Vegas & Reno – Dr. Christopher McKay, a leading NASA Scientist, has been named the 2015 Nevada Medalist by the Desert Research Institute. The Nevada Medal is the highest scientific honor in the state; it is bestowed annually at formal dinner presentations in Las Vegas and Reno. For the second straight year, Switch SUPERNAP has agreed to be the presenting sponsor for the events next April.
“We are very excited to have Dr. McKay continue this wonderful tradition of bringing dynamic scientists to Nevada who have made a profound impact on our planet,” said Dr. Stephen Wells, DRI President. “Dr. McKay is one of NASA’s foremost experts on the search for life in Earth’s most extreme NASA’s Dr. Chistopher McKay in Antarcticaenvironments, and beyond.”
“DRI is also very honored by the continued generous support for this important event by Switch SUPERNAP,” said Dr. Stephen Wells, DRI President.
McKay, an astrobiologist and planetary scientist with the Space Science Division of NASA Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, has spent more than 30 years advancing human understanding of the evolution of the solar system and the origin of life on Earth.
Astrobiology includes studying life in extreme environments to better understand how to search for life on other planets, such as Mars. McKay’s scientific contributions in planning for future Mars missions includes research in Mars-like environments on Earth, traveling to the Antarctic dry valleys, the Canadian Arctic, Siberia, and the Atacama Desert in Chile. He was a co-investigator on the Huygens probe to Saturn’s moon Titan in 2005, the Mars Phoenix lander mission in 2008, and the current Mars Science Laboratory mission.
“It is my privilege and honor to be named as the 28th DRI Nevada Medalist”, McKay said. “The search for life continues to lead us in directions no one thought possible. Collaboration with scientists around the globe and here in Nevada are bringing us closer to the fundamental question we face as a society: Is there life beyond Earth?”
McKay has collaborated on several DRI projects in the extreme environments of desert and polar regions, including DRI’s notable mission to Lake Vida, in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of East Antarctica in 2010. Led by DRI’s Dr. Alison Murray and Dr. Christian Fritsen, the Lake Vida team discovered a viable community of bacteria surviving beneath nearly 20 meters of ice in a dark, salty, subfreezing environment. McKay’s research with DRI’s Dr. Henry Sun on cyanobacteria that eke out a living under the surface of granite and sandstone rocks in the Mojave Desert and Antarctica highlight the unique conditions under which life occurs for some of the Earth’s oldest microorganisms.
The recognized world leader in data center and internet ecosystem design and operations, Switch SUPERNAP is continuing its presenting sponsorship role for the DRI Nevada Medal. The $50,000 presenting sponsorship contribution will support DRI’s local and global applied research.
“Switch founder and CEO Rob Roy is committed to moving Nevada forward and believes celebrating the accomplishments of a ground-breaking scientific leader such as Dr. Christopher McKay shows the importance of science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM),” said Missy Young a member of the Desert Research Institute Foundation Board of Trustees. Switch is dedicated to helping diversify Nevada’s economy and serving the local community through philanthropic efforts.
Rob Roy is committed to paying forward the success of Switch SUPERNAP and is passionate about promoting STEAM education in Nevada. He created The Innevation Center, a philanthropic effort to support education and economic diversification by fostering collaboration between Nevada stakeholders, entrepreneurs, education and economic diversification focused non-profits, and the larger community.
Over the last 28 years, the Desert Research Institute (DRI) has honored individuals in science and engineering whose prominent research contributions have ranged from mapping the human genome and explaining protein folding to discovering ancient hydrothermal vents in the Galapagos and advancing our knowledge of archaeological discoveries across the globe. Each year science and engineering is celebrated statewide at DRI’s annual Nevada Medal Events.
The 28th Annual DRI Nevada Medal Event in Las Vegas will include a formal dinner and award ceremony at the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. In Reno the Peppermill Resort Spa Casino will Reno include a formal dinner and award ceremony.
Both evenings will feature a cocktail hour will begin at 6 p.m., with the main event at 7 p.m.
Tickets and more information about the 2014 DRI Nevada Medal event are available online.
About the Nevada Medal: The DRI Nevada Medal was established by DRI in 1988 and is the highest award given annually by Nevada to recognize and acknowledge outstanding achievement in science and engineering. The annual award includes an eight-ounce minted medallion of .999 pure Nevada silver and $20,000 lecture honorarium. The recipient of DRI’s Nevada Medal is chosen by members of a committee, representing the Governor of Nevada, the DRI President and the DRI Foundation. The most recent medalist was Dr. Albert Lin. The previous three were Dr. Nina V. Fedoroff, Dr. Steven Squyres, and Dr. Robert Ballard.
About the Desert Research Institute: DRI conducts cutting-edge applied research in air, land and life, and water quality across Nevada, the United States and on every continent. For more information check us out on the web at: http://news.dri.edu/
About Switch SUPERNAP: SUPERNAP is the world’s leader in data center and internet ecosystem design, development and mission critical operations, providing unrivaled independent solutions for colocation, connectivity, cloud and collaboration ecosystems. They represent innovation, security and reliability for more than 1,000 global clients, from sophisticated startups to Fortune 100 powerhouses.
Rob Roy is the CEO and founder of Switch, the parent company of SUPERNAP, and is the technology inventor and designer of the SUPERNAP data centers. Rob Roy’s 218 patented and patent pending claims on data center systems, designs and related industry technologies, have changed the technology landscape. For more information about SUPERNAP, please visit www.supernap.com.
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Are you disgusted with our representation in Congress? Congress has a 9% approval rating. It doesn’t seem to matter if we elect Republicans or Democrats, the policies of Washington D.C. don’t change.
Almost without exception our leaders have betrayed us. Congressman Amodei voted not to repeal DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) which has caused the crisis on the border. Eighty to ninety percent of those crossing the border are not little children, but teenage boys between 16 and 18 years old, the prime age for recruitment into cartel gangs. The government gives them a court date 4 years away and 94% don’t ever show up. Consider that terrorists and diseases of all kinds are pouring across our border making America unsafe.
The Freedom Index gave Amodei a dismal 17%, not only because of his bad voting record but because he missed so many important votes.
Unfortunately, he voted for spending increases of $26 billion for 2014 and $19 billion for 2015, lifting spending caps to 1.012 trillion and $1.014 trillion. This effectively eliminated $63 billion in cuts for 2014-15.
This government spending binge causes inflation and hurts you. We all know that the cost of food, fuel, and medical care have all gone up dramatically. It hurts free enterprise job creation harming all of us in our languishing economy.
Amodei failed to vote for H.R. 4138 which passed the House. It authorizes the House or Senate to bring a civil action against the President or any federal bureaucrat who failed to enforce an existing law, policy, program, regulation, or statute, in violation of the president’s constitutional obligation to faithfully execute the laws.
The President has repeatedly failed to enforce existing law and now governs by doing whatever he wants as the Congress sits by and does nothing. This is dangerous and undermines the security we all depend on, the rule of law. If the President sets the example of lawlessness, what can we expect of others? No wonder crime is increasing.
Your Vote is Powerful. Don’t waste it! Make your vote count–vote Janine Hansen for Congress District 2.
Janine Hansen, Independent American Candidate for Congress District 2
Paid For By The Friends Of Janine Hansen