Rate My Professor David Catling

David Catling is a professor of Earth and space sciences at the University of Washington, jointly appointed to the Department of Earth and Space Sciences and the cross-campus Astrobiology Program. He currently serves as interim director of the UW Astrobiology Program and as an adjunct professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences. Catling earned his D.Phil. in Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics from the University of Oxford. After completing his doctorate, he served as a planetary scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center from 1995 to 2001. In 2001, he joined the faculty at the University of Washington in Seattle. Additionally, from 2005 to 2008, he held the position of European Union Marie Curie Chair in Earth and Planetary System Science at the University of Bristol, England, while remaining an affiliate professor at UW.

His research specializes in planetary atmospheres, biogeochemistry, planetary geomorphology, and astrobiology, with a focus on the co-evolution of planetary surfaces, atmospheres, and life. Catling examines factors that render planets habitable, drawing on data from Earth, Mars, Venus, and exoplanets across disciplines including astronomy, biology, and geology. He contributed to NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander mission as part of its 35-person science team, which successfully operated in Mars' northern polar region in 2008. Key publications include the popular science book Astrobiology: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2013) and the scholarly text Atmospheric Evolution on Inhabited and Lifeless Worlds (Cambridge University Press, 2017, co-authored with James F. Kasting). Other notable works are “Biogenic methane, hydrogen escape, and the irreversible oxidation of early Earth” (Science, 2001), “The Archean atmosphere” (Science Advances, 2020, with Kevin J. Zahnle), and contributions to understanding perchlorate chemistry on Mars (Science, 2009). In recognition of his fundamental contributions to the co-evolution of Earth’s environment and atmosphere, including the rise of oxygen and origins of life, Catling was elected a 2026 Geochemistry Fellow by the Geochemical Society and the European Association of Geochemistry. His scholarship has significantly influenced planetary science and astrobiology.