Rika has received NASA funding for a project to improve how scientists recognize whether an exoplanet can or does support life. Anderson’s work in “The Virtual Planetary Laboratory (VPL): Advancing the Search for Life Beyond the Solar System” project will contribute to NASA’s broader “Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS)” network. As a co-investigator with Victoria Meadows of the University of Washington-Seattle, Rika will examine the early evolution of microbial life on Earth. She will work with a Carleton undergraduate researcher on bioinformatics tasks over the course of the five-year grant, and attend the Astrobiology Science Conference every other year.