Rate My Professor Christopher House

Christopher House is a Professor of Geosciences in the Department of Geosciences at Penn State University. He earned his Ph.D. in Geology from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1999, with a dissertation on carbon isotopic fractionation by diverse extant and fossil prokaryotes, and his B.S. in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from the University of California, San Diego in 1995. House has held appointments at Penn State since 2000, advancing from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor and then full Professor in 2012. He maintains faculty appointments in the Huck Institute for the Life Sciences and the Earth and Environment Systems Institute.

House's research focuses on the origin and early evolution of microbial life on Earth, geomicrobiology, microbial diversity and cultivation, molecular evolution, microbial paleontology, and astrobiology, including the search for habitable environments beyond Earth. He has authored or co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts and maintains active involvement in NASA missions such as OSIRIS-REx and Mars Science Laboratory. House serves as Director of the Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium and co-director of the Penn State Consortium for Planetary and Exoplanetary Science and Technology. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and has received the Penn State Earth and Mineral Sciences Wilson Award for Excellence in Research. Among his honors are participation in multiple NASA advisory roles and selection for scientific positions on Ocean Drilling Program expeditions.