Vance Oyama, Searching for Life in Our Solar System
Vance I. Oyama holds a readout from the gas chromatograph in the life detection laboratory at NASA’s Ames Research Center in this picture from April 22, 1965. Oyama had a long career at NASA, during which he served as Life Detection Systems branch chief; he examined lunar soil samples and also helped design experiments for the Viking Mars Landers. Both he and his brother Jiro pioneered new areas of life sciences research at Ames.