Jeffrey Bada: 1942-2024

Jeffrey Bada, a distinguished professor emeritus of marine chemistry at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego who advanced the search for the origins of life on Earth and for the existence of life elsewhere in the universe, died in his sleep on Sept. 1 in his La Jolla home. He was 81. 

Born Sept. 10, 1942, Bada was a San Diego native who spent portions of his childhood at his family’s farm near Creston, Iowa. He obtained his PhD in chemistry in 1968 at UC San Diego. He was advised by iconic researcher Stanley Miller, who, with Harold Urey, had conducted famous “primordial soup” laboratory experiments to simulate the conditions on early Earth that could have given rise to life. 

Bada continued to pursue the question in his own career. He studied the geochemistry of amino acids, the sources and stability of organic compounds on the primitive Earth and other solar system bodies and the detection of possible remnants of life on solar system bodies. 

“Jeff was an outstanding scientist and a leading organic chemist and geochemist,” said former colleague Miriam Kastner, retired professor emerita of geochemistry at Scripps Oceanography. “The use of several amino acid-based techniques for approximate archeological and biological dating was developed in his laboratories.”

“(Bada) is a leading world expert on amino acid geochemistry and cosmochemistry, and has made major contributions to the study of their stability and presence in meteorites, their synthesis under primitive Earth conditions, as well as the development of spaceflight instrument prototypes to search for organics on Mars and other Solar System bodies,” wrote a committee of Bada’s colleagues and former students in nominating him for a 2017 award from the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life. “His studies of the primordial ocean, chemistry, organic compound stability, and abiotic peptide synthesis under possible primitive conditions shaped generations of origin of life research.”

In pursuit of signs that life could have existed on Mars, he designed in the early 2000s a detector to be part of a spaceship’s science payload that would search for amino acids like the kind that give rise to life. NASA ultimately shelved the project but successor missions now planned have much the same goal. In 1992, he helped form the NASA Specialized Center of Research and Training in Exobiology (NSCORT), initially led by Miller. The center focused on the study of origin and evolution of life in the universe, whether on Earth or elsewhere. 

Bada joined Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego in 1969, the year after he received his PhD. He retired in 2010 as a distinguished professor, but remained at Scripps as a returning research professor until 2017. He was the author of the books “The Spark of Life: Darwin and the Primeval Soup” (2000), co-authored with UC San Diego biologist Christopher Wills, and “Science at Interfaces, from Biochemistry to Cosmochemistry” (2024).

Bada co-authored more than 250 research papers during his career.

Bada is survived by wife Margaret Schoeninger of La Jolla, herself a distinguished emerita professor of anthropology and co-director of the Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropology at UC San Diego; sons Greg of San Diego and Scott of Reno, Nev., and grandson Elliot of Encinitas, Calif.

The family plans to hold a private memorial service. 

TRIBUTES 

“When I was an undergraduate student majoring in physics at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) in 1994, I took an environmental geochemistry class taught by Professor Jeff Bada as part of my specialization in earth science. This was one of the most exciting courses I took while at UCSD and Dr. Bada was by far one of the most motivating instructors I had as an undergraduate. Dr. Bada encouraged me to apply for a NASA Specialized Center of Research and Training (NSCORT) Exobiology fellowship which I did the summer after I graduated from UCSD in 1996. Even though I had only a basic knowledge of organic chemistry at the time, Dr. Bada recognized my enthusiasm for chemistry and taught me the skills that summer necessary to be an effective researcher and science communicator. 

Jeff and I worked together on the first amino acid analysis of the famous martian meteorite ALH 84001, the one discovered in Antarctica and later claimed to contain possible evidence for extinct martian life by a research team at NASA. We did in fact discover amino acids in the ALH 84001 meteorite which was later published in Science, however they were all terrestrial in origin, most likely derived from the Antarctic ice. Jeff was later quoted as saying, “Yes, ALH 84001 does have evidence for life, but it is all terrestrial.” The following year, I was accepted into the PhD program in earth sciences at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) with Dr. Bada as my advisor. Jeff’s enthusiasm for origin of life research was contagious and my experiences working with him and personal growth that summer and throughout my PhD at SIO has been my foundation for a successful career at NASA.”

– Daniel Glavin, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

“Learning of Jeff’s passing was incredibly sad news. As Jeff’s last undergraduate student, I will always remember him fondly. Jeff gave me an opportunity to gain research experience in his laboratory, where I learned to love research, and developed an enthusiasm for working in a laboratory setting. We worked together on a project focused on aiding the search for life on Mars, a research discipline I never would have known I could contribute to if not for Jeff welcoming me into his laboratory.

Later, I was inspired by Jeff to pursue a PhD in chemistry to study prebiotic molecules on the primordial Earth. Although Jeff was retired while I was in graduate school, he was actively involved in shaping the focus of my thesis and his scientific expertise was paramount to the successful culmination of my graduate research. I can confidently state that completing my PhD would not have been achievable without Jeff’s steady tutelage.

I will always be grateful to Jeff for the positive impact he had on my life. Jeff was my greatest supporter, my trusted advisor, and spearheaded my growth as a scientist. I will miss Jeff for his mentorship, leadership and friendship.”

– Eric Parker, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

“Jeff was on my thesis committee when my mentor, Stanley Miller, had a stroke. Jeff looked after me very carefully for the remaining years of my thesis work. I really had the sense of being part of a family during what was a difficult time for me. I will always remember his care in that period. I later worked with him as a post-doctoral fellow, and I was always impressed with his very deep knowledge of physical chemistry and geochemistry. He was the epitome of a straight-shooter, and had a unique ability to treat you as a peer and try to coax you into operating on his level that I think brought a whole generation of scientists to the next level of their careers. The range of topics his science touched was remarkable, from dating the Dead Sea Scrolls and bowhead whales, to looking for cyanide from the Tunguska event in ice cores, understanding hydrothermal organic chemistry, and finding the best ways to detect biosignatures on Mars. He had a broad scientific vision, and was truly one of a kind. He was a man of great humor, thoughtfulness and kindness. I feel very lucky to have worked with him and to have met the people he welcomed into his circle.”   

– Jim Cleaves, Howard University

I was deeply saddened and shocked when Margaret (Schoeninger) told me that Jeff had died. Jeff and I were both at UC San Diego in the 1960s and I had also worked in Stanley Miller’s laboratory as a grad student, though I was actually in the Biology Department. In the early 2000s, I returned to San Diego and ran into Dr. Miller on the UCSD campus. Stanley immediately asked me a question about alternative bases for life on the primitive earth and I suggested that I join his lab and try some chemistry. Unfortunately, Dr. Miller suffered a stroke and had to retire, but Jeff invited me to join his laboratory on the third floor of Sverdrup Hall on the Scripps campus.  This was, in a sense, a homecoming as I had worked with Dr. Miller in the same laboratory space many years earlier as a grad student.

The years I spent with Jeff, Jim Cleaves, and others in Jeff’s lab were among the most productive, and certainly the most enjoyable, in my career, during which I had moved back and forth from academia to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries several times. One of my favorite memories I have of Jeff’s lab was taking a UCSD car across the border to a university in Tijuana, Mexico to attend a chemistry meeting at which Jeff spoke. Other memories involved setting up demonstrations of the famous Miller-Urey sparking discharge apparatus for various well-known scientific visitors.  Jeff is very much missed by all of us in the origin of life/prebiotic chemistry community. 

– John Chalmers, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (retired)