Biographical Sketch for Dr. Bernstein

Max Bernstein was born on November 10, 1965 in Brooklyn, New York to June and Alex Bernstein. He was raised in Brooklyn and Larchmont and attended Mamaroneck High School with his sister Elizabeth, and friends, many of whom now live out in the San Francisco Bay area. He received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from McGill University in Montreal (where he learned in the labs of Dr. David Harpp) and returned to New York to continue his studies in chemistry. In graduate school at Cornell University Max performed kinetics on reactions in the presence of TMEDA, and got his Ph.D. working with Dr. David Collum, from whom he received much knowledge and amusement.

Max is currently a research scientist at NASA Ames where he studies the (organic) photochemistry of interstellar/cometary ices with Drs. Louis J. Allamandola and Scott A. Sandford. Dr. Bernstein has won the Zeldovich Medal (awarded jointly by the Russian Academy of Sciences and COSPAR, an international space organization) two space science division awards, an Ames honor award, an American Chemical Society Newsmaker award, and has twice been member of a team that won NASA's group achievement award.

Dr. Bernstein has contributed to books such as CRC Dictionary of Geophysics, Astrophysics and Astronomy, published a number of technical papers papers in peer reviewed journals including in the prestigious Science and Nature, as well as the widely read Scientific American. Max also wrote an easy reading article for the public about his work for the online web zine Strange Horizons. Check it out.

You can read other popular science articles about some of Dr. Bernstein's work at Wired News, ABC News, You can even listen to one of his interviews with the BBC. Dr. Bernstein often addresses scientific assemblies, educational institutions, and corporate gatherings. If you would like to have Dr. Bernstein speak to your institution you can contact Mr. J. B. Miller or Dr. Bernstein. You can hear one of Dr. Bernstein's technical lectures on line, this talk was given at the NY Center for Studies on the Origins of Life at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in November 2001.

If you would like to know more about the science please visit the web site for The Astrochemistry Lab. This work is funded through grants from NASA and Dr. Bernstein is at NASA through a cooperative agreement with the SETI Institute.

Max spends his free time after work, cooking, gardening, trying new restaurants and wine.

Here is a link to a plug-in that he and Jason wrote, for the space adventure computer game called Escape Velocity.

You can reach Dr. Bernstein by phone at (650) 604-0194, by Fax at (650) 604-6779, electronically at mbernstein@mail.arc.nasa.gov, or by post at M/S 245-6, Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000.