Dr. Victoria Meadows leads the massively interdisciplinary NASA Virtual Planetary Laboratory, which she started in 2001 with the goal of developing a scientific foundation for the search for habitability and life beyond the Solar System. Her research includes studying the present and past Earth as analogs for exoplanet environments, theoretical modeling of star-planet interactions, and using simulated spectra of exoplanets to understand how to best detect signs of life in a planetary environment. Dr. Meadows has served on numerous NASA mission concept development teams, including the Large UV Optical Infrared Telescope, and is currently a member of the NASA Habitable Worlds Observatory Community Science and Instrumentation Team. She was also the Chair for the Exoplanets, Astrobiology and the Solar System Science Panel for the National Academy of Sciences Astro2020 Decadal Report. She is a SETI Institute Drake Award Recipient, a Fellow of both the American Geophysical Union and the American Astronomical Society, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington.

• 2023 Fellow of the American Geophysical Union
• 2022 Fellow of the American Astronomical Society
• 2021 Washington State Academy of Sciences
• 2019 NASA Group Achievement Award – Astrophysics Large Mission Study Team (LUVOIR)
• 2019 Hans E. Suess Memorial Lecture, UC San Diego
• 2018 SETI Frank Drake Award
• 2009 NASA Group Achievement Award – 2008 Astrobiology Roadmap Team
• 2008-2010 National Academy of Sciences - Frontiers of Science Kavli Fellow
• 2007-2008 NASA Astrobiology Roadmap Revision Team
• 2006 NASA Group Achievement Award – Spitzer Deep Impact Support Team
• 2005 NASA Group Achievement Award – Spitzer First Look Survey Science Team
• 2004 NASA Group Achievement Award – Spitzer Space Telescope Mission Ops Team

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-abs_connect?return_req=no_params&author=Meadows%2C%20Victoria&db_key=AST

Selected:

Thomas, T. B., Meadows, V. S., Krissansen-Totton, J., Gialluca, M. T., Wogan, N. F., & Catling, D. C. (2025). Statistical geochemical constraints on present-day water outgassing as a source of secondary atmospheres on the TRAPPIST-1 exoplanets. The Planetary Science Journal, 6(5), 126.

Currie, M. H. and Meadows, V. S. (2025) There's more to life in reflected light: Simulating the detectability of a range of molecules for high-contrast, high-resolution observations of non-transiting terrestrial exoplanets, The Planetary Science Journal 6(4) p. 96.

Gialluca, M. T., Barnes, R., Meadows, V. S., Garcia, R., Birky, J., & Agol, E. (2024). The Implications of Thermal Hydrodynamic Atmospheric Escape on the TRAPPIST-1 Planets. The Planetary Science Journal, 5(6), 137.

Meadows, V. S., Lincowski, A., P., Lustig-Yaeger, J. (2023) The Feasibility of Detecting Biosignatures in the TRAPPIST-1 Planetary System with JWST, PSJ, 4(10), 192.

Currie, M. H., Stark, C. C., Kammerer, J., Juanola-Parramon, Meadows, V. S., (2023), Mitigating Worst-Case Exozodiacal Dust Structure in High-Contrast Images of Earth-Like Exoplanets, The Astronomical Journal 166, no. 5 (2023): 197

Lustig-Yaeger, J., Meadows, V. S., Crisp, D., Line, M. R., & Robinson, T. D. (2023). Earth as a Transiting Exoplanet: A Validation of Transmission Spectroscopy and Atmospheric Retrieval Methodologies for Terrestrial Exoplanets. PSJ, 4(9), 170.

Lincowski, A. P., Meadows, V. S., Zieba, A., Kreidberg, L., Morley, C., Gillon, M., Selsis, F., Agol, E., Bolmont, D., Ducrot, E., Hu, R., Koll, D. D. B., Lyu, X., Mandell, A., Suissa, G., (2023), Potential Atmospheric Compositions of TRAPPIST-1 c constrained by JWST/MIRI Observations at 15μm, ApJL, 955(1), p.L.7

Meadows, V., Graham, H., Abrahamsson, V., Adam, Z., Amador-French, E., Arney, G., Barge, L., Barlow, E., Berea, A., Bose, M., et al. (2022). Community report from the biosignatures standards of evidence workshop. arXiv preprint arXiv:2210.14293

Lincowski, A. P., Meadows, V. S., Crisp, D., Akins, A. B., Schwieterman, E. W., Arney, G. N., Wong, M. L., Steffes, P. G., Parenteau, M. N., and Domagal-Goldman, S. (2021). Claimed detection of PH3 in the clouds of Venus is consistent with mesospheric SO2. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 908(2):L44

Agol, E., Dorn, C., Grimm, S. L., Turbet, M., Ducrot, E., Delrez, L., Gillon, M., Demory, B.-O., Burdanov, A., Barkaoui, K., Benkhaldoun, Z., Bolmont, E., Burgasser, A., Carey, S., de Wit, J., Fabrycky, D., Foreman-Mackey, D., Haldemann, J., Hernandez, D. M., Ingalls, J., Jehin, E., Langford, Z., Leconte, J., Lederer, S. M., Luger, R., Malhotra, R., Meadows, V. S., Morris, B. M., Pozuelos, Francisco, J., Queloz, D., Raymond, S. N., Selsis, F., Sestovic, M., Triaud, A. H. M. J., and Van Grootel, V. (2021a). Refining the transit-timing and photometric analysis of TRAPPIST-1: masses, radii, densities, dynamics, and ephemerides. The planetary science journal, 2(1):1

Arney, G. N., Izenberg, N. R., Kane, S. R., Mandt, K. E., Meadows, V. S., Rymer, A. M., Quick, L. C., and Byrne, P. K. (2020). Exoplanets in our backyard: A report from an interdisciplinary community workshop and a call to combined action. arXiv preprint arXiv:2007.09231

Meadows, V. S., Arney, G., Schmidt, B., and Des Marais, D. J. (2020). Planetary Astrobiology. The University of Arizona Press, Tucson

Gillon, M., Meadows, V., Agol, E., Burgasser, A. J., Deming, D., Doyon, R., Fortney, J., Kreidberg, L., Owen, J., Selsis, F., et al. (2020a). The TRAPPIST-1 JWST Community Initiative. arXiv preprint arXiv:2002.04798

Lustig-Yaeger, J., Meadows, V. S., and Lincowski, A. P. (2019). The Detectability and Characterization of the TRAPPIST-1 Exoplanet Atmospheres with JWST. AJ, 158(1):27

Tilley, M. A., Segura, A., Meadows, V., Hawley, S., and Davenport, J. (2019). Modeling repeated m dwarf flaring at an earth-like planet in the habitable zone: atmospheric effects for an unmagnetized planet. Astrobiology, 19(1):64–86

Meadows, V. S., Reinhard, C. T., Arney, G. N., Parenteau, M. N., Schwieterman, E. W., Domagal-Goldman, S. D., Lincowski, A. P., Stapelfeldt, K. R., Rauer, H., DasSarma, S., et al. (2018b). Exoplanet biosignatures: understanding oxygen as a biosignature in the context of its environment. Astrobiology, 18(6):630–662

Meadows, V. S., Arney, G. N., Schwieterman, E. W., Lustig-Yaeger, J., Lincowski, A. P., Robinson, T., Domagal-Goldman, S. D., Deitrick, R., Barnes, R. K., Fleming, D. P., et al. (2018a). The habitability of Proxima Centauri b: environmental states and observational discriminants. Astrobiology, 18(2):133–189

Lustig-Yaeger, J., Meadows, V. S., Tovar Mendoza, G., Schwieterman, E. W., Fujii, Y., Luger, R., and Robinson, T. D. (2018). Detecting Ocean Glint on Exoplanets Using Multiphase Mapping. AJ, 156:301

Lincowski, A. P., Meadows, V. S., Crisp, D., Robinson, T. D., Luger, R., Lustig-Yaeger, J., and Arney, G. N. (2018). Evolved Climates and Observational Discriminants for the TRAPPIST-1 Planetary System. The Astrophysical Journal, 867(1):76

Arney, G., Domagal-Goldman, S. D., and Meadows, V. S. (2018). Organic haze as a biosignature in anoxic Earth-like atmospheres. Astrobiology, 18(3):311–329

Meadows, V. S. (2017). Reflections on o2 as a biosignature in exoplanetary atmospheres. Astrobiology, 17(10):1022–1052

Arney, G. N., Meadows, V. S., Domagal-Goldman, S. D., Deming, D., Robinson, T. D., Tovar, G., Wolf, E. T., and Schwieterman, E. (2017). Pale Orange Dots: The Impact of Organic Haze on the Habitability and Detectability of Earthlike Exoplanets. Astrophys. J., 836(1):49

Snellen, I. A. G., Désert, J.-M., Waters, L. B. F. M., Robinson, T., Meadows, V., van Dishoeck, E. F., Brandl, B. R., Henning, T., Bouwman, J., Lahuis, F., Min, M., Lovis, C., Dominik, C., Van Eylen, V., Sing, D., Anglada-Escudé, G., Birkby, J. L., and Brogi, M. (2017). Detecting Proxima b’s Atmosphere with JWST Targeting CO2 at 15 µm Using a High-pass Spectral Filtering Technique. AJ, 154:77

Robinson, T. D., Meadows, V. S., and Crisp, D. (2010). Detecting Oceans on Extrasolar Planets Using the Glint Effect. The Astrophysical Journal, 721(1):L67–L71

Segura, A., Kasting, J. F., Meadows, V., Cohen, M., Scalo, J., Crisp, D., Butler, R. A. H., and Tinetti, G. (2005). Biosignatures from Earth-like Planets Around M Dwarfs. Astrobiology, 5(6):706–725

Meadows, V. S. and Crisp, D. (1996). Ground-based near-infrared observations of the Venus nightside: The thermal structure and water abundance near the surface. J. Geophys. Res., 101:4595–4622