A Science on Screen® Presentation

Including a pre-show presentation: Life on Mars? Soil, Plants, and Climate on the Red Planet presented by Valerie Payré and Matthew Dannenberg

"The Martian delivers on both intergalactic spectacle and feet-in-the-soil character drama."— Mark Kermode, The Observer

During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive. Millions of miles away, NASA and a team of international scientists work tirelessly to bring 'the Martian' home, while his crewmates concurrently plot a daring, if not impossible rescue mission. As these stories of incredible bravery unfold, the world comes together to root for Watney’s safe return.

Dr. Valerie Payré is a planetary geologist in the University of Iowa Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and her primary research interest is understanding the evolution of planetary bodies, with an emphasis on Mars, to better constrain the geological history of our own planet. Her work crosses several disciplines including igneous petrology, geochemistry, mineralogy, and sedimentology to assess planetary surface and interior evolution and constrain magmatic processes on Mars and other planets.

Dr. Matthew Dannenberg is an assistant professor of Geographical and Sustainability Sciences at the University of Iowa. His studies include past and present global change and its impacts on Earth’s ecosystems, at scales ranging from the regional (with a focus on dryland ecosystems of the western United States) to the global using tools that include remote sensing, dendrochronology (the science of tree rings), and empirical/process-based modeling.

An initiative of the COOLIDGE CORNER THEATRE, with major support from the ALFRED P. SLOAN FOUNDATION.