Professor James F. Kasting
James F. Kasting, Ph.D., FAAAS is Professor of Geosciences,
Pennsylvania State University and author of
How to Find a Habitable Planet.
He is on the Editorial Boards of
Astrobiology and
Geobiology.
He is a member of the NASA Advisory Council Astrophysics Subcommittee.
His research interests are
atmospheric evolution, planetary atmospheres, and paleoclimates.
Jim coauthored
The Earth System.
The first book of its kind that addresses the issues of global change
from a perspective of Earth as a system, The Earth System offers
a
solid
emphasis on lessons from Earth history that may guide decision making in
the future.
Jim was elected
Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in
1995,
Fellow of the
International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life in 2002,
Fellow of American Geophysical Union in 2004,
Fellow of Geochemical Society in 2008, and Fellow
of American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008.
He won the Oparin Medal from the International Society for the Study of
the
Origin of Life in 2008.
His papers include
Ups and downs of ancient oxygen,
Hydrodynamic planetary thermosphere model:
1. Response of the Earth’s thermosphere to extreme solar EUV
conditions and the significance of adiabatic cooling,
Habitable planets around the star Gliese 581?,
Abiotic formation of O2 and O3 in
high-CO2
terrestrial
atmospheres,
Evidence for hot early oceans?,
Paleoclimates, ocean depth, and the oxygen isotopic composition of
seawater,
Atmospheric Composition and Climate on the Early Earth, and
Palaeoclimates: the First Two Billion Years.
Jim earned his B.A. (Summa Cum Laude) in Chemistry and Physics at
Harvard University in
1975. He earned his M.S. in Physics and Atmospheric Science from
the University of Michigan in 1978 and his Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science
from the University of Michigan in 1979.