The ISAR is run by scientific team covering complementary domains of expertise.

Frances Westall

Dr. Frances Westall, director of the exobiology group at the CNRS-Centre de Biophysique Moléculaire, Orléans, France, a geologist by training (University of Edinburgh, UK; PhD University of Cape Town, South Africa (marine geology, sedimentology), has a background in sedimentology, biogeology (fossil bacteria, signatures of life in rocks), and planetology (habitability). She has worked in a number of European and US institutions (Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany; University of Nantes, France; University of Bologna, Italy; NASA-Johnson Space Center, Houston; Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, USA; CNRS-Orléans, France). She is a world leader in the field of fossil microbial signatures and planetary habitability (from the microbial point of view). She has an extensive background in field studies of the most ancient terrestrial terranes as well as more recent (Phanerozoic and modern) analogues. She was one of the originators of the ExoMars 2020 mission and is strongly involved in the mission definition, instrument development (co-PI CLUPI), and in the landing site selection. She is also associated scientist with MSL. She is currently president of the European Astrobiology network Association. She has over 150 publications in peer-reviewed journals, numerous book chapters and more than 250 conference abstracts. She is/has been editor of journals, such as Astrobiology, J. Sedimentological Research, Biogeology, Int. J. Astrobiology, and Advances in Space Science. She is PI of the International Space Analogue Rockstore, ISAR.

Nicolas Bost

Nicolas Bost did his PhD in geology from 2009 to 2012 under the co-direction of Frances Westall and Claire Ramboz, respectively from the CBM and the ISTO, in Orléans, France. He was in charge of the selection and characterization of the first set of Mars analogue samples for the ISAR.

Frédéric Foucher

Dr. Frédéric Foucher is research engineer at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), in the exobiology team of the Centre de Biophysique Moléculaire (CBM), in Orléans, France. He obtained his Ph.D. in physics at the University of Poitiers, France, in 2007 and continued his studies and research at the CBM as a specialist of Atomic Force Microscopy then of Raman spectroscopy. He is now working in various fields of astrobiology: Martian exploration, space analogues, primitive Earth, biosignatures and instrumentation. He obtained his habilitation in 2017. He is in charge of the management of the ISAR.

Keyron Hickman-Lewis

Keyron Hickman-Lewis is a PhD student based at the CBM in Orléans, France, under the co-direction of Frances Westall and Barbara Cavalazzi (Bologna). He is a geologist researching Early Archaean traces of life, and works also on the creation of Martian analogue samples for the ISAR and for the purposes of testing the ExoMars 2020 payload instrumentation.

Etienne Marceau

Etienne Marceau did his Master-thesis in geology in 2014 at the CBM in Orléans, France, under the co-direction of Frédéric Foucher, Nicolas Bost and Guillaume Guimbretière (from CEMHTI, Orléans, France). During his training course, he collected most of the volcanic rocks of the ISAR collection in Massif Central, France.

Derek Pullan

Derek Pullan is a geologist working in the Open University of Leicester, United Kingdom. He originated the idea of the space analogue rocks collection. During his thesis, he developed a database named GSPARC from which the ISAR is largely inspired. He is also involved in the development of the ExoMars panoramic camera and the Life Marker Chip.

Associated members (Non exhaustive list):

John Bridges, Claire Ramboz, Fernando Rull-Perez, Goester Klingelhöeffer, Iris Fleisher, Alain Meunier, Sabine Petit, Sylvain Janiec, Jean-Gabriel Badin, Tanja Zeggers, Jorge Vago, Michel Viso and Axelle Hubert.

Sylvain Janiec and Jean-Gabriel Badin are in charge of the thin sections preparation in the ISTO, in Orléans, France. They make most of the ISAR thin sections.