Steven Benner

Steven Benner is a pioneering chemist, synthetic biologist and storyteller who has spent his career exploring two of humanity’s oldest questions: ‘What is life?’ and ‘Are we alone?’ From Harvard to NASA, via a stellar academic career at ETH Zurich, and from the lab bench to international scientific reports, he has helped reshape the modern definition of life and the search for it beyond Earth.

Founding Director and Distinguished Fellow at FfAME, the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution, and a noted astrobiologist and winner of the 2023 Harold Urey Medal from the International Astrobiology Society for the study of the origin of life, Benner helped found the fields of synthetic biology and paleogenetics. He has shown how simple building blocks can spark into the beginnings of life — even on Mars. With clarity and imagination, he makes the complex accessible, inviting readers to see that the next great discovery is likely waiting just across the solar system.