Barry DiGregorio

Barry DiGregorio is an astrobiologist, award-winning public speaker, journalist, musician, and published author.  

In 1967, he developed his love for music and journalism after hanging out with The Who backstage at Melody Fair in North Tonawanda, New York on their first U.S. tour.  He later went on to interview people like Eric Clapton and Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad.

As a science journalist, he’s interviewed dozens of notable scientists and aerospace personnel, including Chuck Yeager who first broke the sound barrier in 1947.  He’s also corresponded directly with Neil deGrasse Tyson, Carl Sagan, Arthur C. Clarke, Neil Armstrong, and William Shatner.

In 1995, his proposal to look for hydrogen peroxide on Mars was one of five recommended for consideration by the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute.

That same year his music Guitar Sonata for Zero-G Listeners was literally brought into space on a cassette tape, and played on the Space Shuttle Discovery by NASA astronaut and first female space pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Eileen Marie Collins.

He spent 10 years as a Research Associate for the Cardiff Centre of Astrobiology at Cardiff University in Wales.

In 2010 DiGregorio was made an Honorary Research Fellow for the Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology in the United Kingdom.

Since 2000 he has been the Director and Founder for the planetary protection group International Committee Against Mars Sample Return.

He’s authored 3 books on Mars.  Most notably one titled, Mars: The Living Planet.