About Jean-Pierre Paul de Vera

Jean-Pierre de Vera studied chemistry, botany, microbiology and geology at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf and gained his doctorate in biology. At the age of 8, he was already enthusiastic about space travel and was all the more delighted to come into contact with DLR during his doctoral studies. For the first time, he was able to test organisms from alpine permafrost under simulated space conditions at the Institute of Aerospace Medicine in the Department of Radiation Biology in Cologne. After completing his doctorate, he remained associated with DLR during various research stays in Italy, England and Spain. During this time, he was involved in various space experiments such as BIOPAN 6 on the FOTON M3 satellite and LIFE on the EXPOSE-E exposure platform on the Columbus module of the ISS as a co-investigator. In 2009, he joined the DLR at the Institute of Planetary Research in Berlin as part of the Helmholtz Alliance "Planetary Evolution and Life", where he worked as a topic leader on the physics of water on other planets and its significance for life. At the same time, he took over the management of the Mars simulation laboratory from Prof Dr Möhlmann. In 2009/10, he took part in the first Antarctic expedition GANOVEX 10, where he collected samples for the ESA space experiment BIOMEX, which he has also headed as chief scientist since 2010. BIOMEX was launched into space on 24 July 2014 on a Soyuz rocket with a wealth of biological samples and was mounted on the outside of the Russian Zvezda module on the EXPOSE-R2 with the help of two outboard missions by Russian cosmonauts. After successful exposure to space, these samples will be returned to the laboratories of his international cooperation partners and to his laboratory for further analysis in 2016. Jean-Pierre de Vera and his international colleagues are currently preparing a new ESA space experiment called BIOSIGN, which is intended to simulate the environmental conditions of Mars and the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn in near Earth orbit. To do this, he needs new samples from the deep sea and also new samples from the Antarctic. He will collect the samples during the GANOVEX 11 expedition (2015/16) in the Antarctic under the leadership of the BGR. The deep-sea samples will be provided by GEOMAR as part of the Helmholtz Alliance ROBEX.