Dr. Matthew Tiscareno will receive the 2026 Carl Sagan Center Director’s Award in recognition of his scientific leadership and dedication to advancing planetary science at the SETI Institute. As director of the SETI Institute REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) internship program and manager of the PDS Ring-Moon Systems Node, he mentors emerging scientists and leads a team working to ensure outer planets data are preserved and accessible worldwide.

Tiscareno’s research has advanced the understanding of solar system orbital dynamics and planetary rings. As a Cassini Imaging Team associate, he planned key observations of Saturn’s rings, identified “propeller” moons embedded in the rings, and observed impact ejecta clouds. His discoveries have reshaped knowledge of ring dynamics and small-body interactions. He also helped demonstrate that Saturn’s moon Enceladus has a global subsurface ocean, a breakthrough for astrobiology.

Tiscareno has also provided significant leadership to the scientific community, including chairing a division of the American Astronomical Society and editing a definitive scholarly work on planetary rings. He continues to apply his expertise to the study of giant planets and ring systems through groundbreaking missions.

This award recognizes both Tiscareno’s scientific achievements and his vital role in mentoring future scientists.

“It’s a great honor to receive this award,” said Tiscareno. “The SETI Institute is a workplace that values both excellence and community, and I love working with my colleagues every day to pursue those ideals.”

Woods Hole, Mass. (May 13, 2026) – Storm petrels are among the smallest and most mysterious seabirds. Until recently, the use of biologgers to track their movements was impossible. A new study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biology Letters reveals that they routinely travel hundreds of kilometers while deliberately seeking crosswinds, an unexpected strategy that slows their flight but may help them survive above the open ocean.

In a paper published in the international peer-reviewed journal Mycology, a research team led by Professor Yi Wang and Professor Weiming Zhu from Ocean University of China reports a novel epigenetic strategy to efficiently upregulate the biosynthesis of Monascus pigments (MPs), a widely used natural colorant. By disrupting the Ash2 gene in the acidophilic fungus Talaromyces purpurogenus OUCMDZ-019, the team achieved robust activation of MPs biosynthetic pathways, discovered four new azaphilone pigments, and confirmed the strain is free of the harmful mycotoxin citrinin, providing a safe and high-performance solution for the industrial production of natural pigments.

Kyoto, Japan -- Every year in the West Pacific, as summer ends and September rolls around, typhoons are not far behind. Typhoons are the most impactful extreme weather events affecting Japan and East Asia, and due to climate change, extremely strong typhoons are becoming more frequent. In order to adapt critical infrastructure to these massive storms and protect coastal areas, accurate accounting for their future impact is essential.

Assessing the disaster risks of a typhoon season involves quantitatively predicting storm intensity and frequency, relying heavily on the characteristics of regional meteorological fields and natural variability inherent in the climate system. Though varying typhoon characteristics are related to sea surface temperatures -- SST -- probabilistic evaluations that account for SST have been insufficient.

This motivated a team of researchers at KyotoU's Disaster Prevention Research Institute to analyze typhoon intensity through spatial SST patterns. They combined a slab-ocean model with the Global Atmospheric Climate Model developed by the Meteorological Research Institute of the Japan Meteorological Agency, resulting in a unique simulation that successfully represents atmosphere-ocean interactions on a global scale.

Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology discover that a group of beneficial gut bacteria and their marine relatives use the same feeding strategies. This sheds new light on the potential of these bacteria for gut health research, as well as their role in marine carbon cycling.