Barbara Cavalazzi is Associate Professor at the University of Bologna, Adjunct Professor at the University of Johannesburg, and Associate Researcher at National Institute of Astrophysics-INAF. She obtained her PhD in 2005 at the Univ. of Modena and Reggio Emilia, and continuer and study and learning at the Univ. of Bologna, University of Western Australia, Portland State University, Centre de Biophysique Moleculaire-CNRS-Orléans, University of Johannesburg. Her research fields are geobiology and astrobiology. She is interested in origin of life and primitive habitats, extreme environments, extremophiles and their preservation potential in the geological record. She is expert in filed geobiology having long experience in study of planetary field analogues and having organized several field campaigns around the world especially in Africa in Morocco, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, South Africa, Botswana.
Since 2019 she is President of the European Astrobiology Network Association-EANA, and among others in 2008 she received award from Exploration Fund of the Explorers Club USA (in 2006), NASA-NAI and Lewis and Clarck Found for Exploration and Field Research in Astrobiology Award of The American Philosophical Society (in 2008), the Medal Science from the Faculty of Science from the university of Alexandria of Egypt (in 2017), a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow (in 2020-21).
She is currently involved in H2020 Europlanet RI in which she is charged to develop platform for space science in Africa and in the H2020 INTRA-AFRICA PanAfrican Planetary and Space Science Network-PAPSSN, and since 2013, she has been teaching astrobiology and planetary field analogues in Egypt, Ethiopia, and Botswana in the frame of Erasmus ICM. She is member of the NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return Science Planning Group Phase 2, European Science Committee - Study on ExoOceans, NASA’s Center for Life Detection, and Italian Space Agency Astrobiology and Microbiology Teams. She is very active in outreach and dissemination activities related to science and space science in African countries. In 2018, she funded for University of Bologna ENGAGE program the project SPACE: Speaking Planet to Teachers Community in Ethiopia through which she successfully organised two edition (2019 and 2020) of the project Afar Desert Class in Danakil area.