Victoria Meadows

Victoria Meadows serves as Professor in the Department of Astronomy within the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington. She has been Principal Investigator for the Virtual Planetary Laboratory (VPL) Lead Team of the NASA Astrobiology Institute since 2000, leading interdisciplinary research on planetary habitability and biosignatures.

Her research focuses on astrobiology and exoplanet science, specializing in remote-sensing observations of planetary atmospheres and surfaces. Key interests include:

• Modeling planet-star interactions for extrasolar terrestrial planets
• Developing frameworks for detecting habitability signs
• Analyzing biosignatures across diverse planetary environments
• Early Earth atmospheric evolution studies

As VPL PI, she directs research organized into five scientific tasks addressing planetary habitability through solar system analogs, Earth's historical evolution, habitable planet characteristics, biosignature generation, and observational strategies. Her team's work directly informs NASA mission planning including the James Webb Space Telescope and future flagship observatories recommended by the Astro2020 Decadal Survey.

Meadows actively contributes to the Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS) coordination network, collaborating with over 20 institutions worldwide. Recent work featured in AAS Nova (November 2023) analyzed JWST's potential for detecting biosignatures in the TRAPPIST-1 system, revealing challenges in identifying oxygenic photosynthesis but promising pathways for detecting methanogenic biospheres through CO₂-CH₄ combinations.