Overview
Dr. Teece is researching organic biosignature detection and alteration, organo-mineral associations, preparation for sample return missions, and distinguishing biotic from abiotic signals in challenging samples. She is a mission formulator and was one of the primary science architects of Mars Sample Return, as well as in the leadership for Search for Life Science Analysis Group (SFL-SAG) which examined how to detect modern life in the icy mid-latitudes of Mars. She earned her PhD at the Australian Centre for Astrobiology at UNSW, Sydney, and conducted her Postdoctoral Fellowship at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Research Focus
Her research examines how signs of life are preserved and detected on Earth and other planetary bodies. She works on hydrothermal systems, early Earth rocks, and Ocean World and Mars-analogue sites in the Pacific Ocean, New Zealand, Chile, Yellowstone National Park (USA), and across Australia.
Publications
- Teece, B.L., Cannelli, S.M., Garibello, C. F. McGlynn S., Barge, L.M. ‘Hydrothermal vents through space and time: experimentally simulating dynamic flow-through systems on Earth and other worlds’. Earth Science Reviews, 271, 105311
- Teece, B.L., Beaty, D.W., Graham, H., McDonnell, G., Sherwood Lollar, B., Siljeström, S., Steele, A., SSAP Tiger Team, Mackelprang R., (2025) ‘The abiotic background as a central component of a Sample Safety Assessment Protocol for Sample Return’. Astrobiology, 25(10), 671-693
- Teece, B.L., Havig, J.R., Hamilton, T.L., Barge, L.M. (2024) ‘Geochemical context for hydrothermal organic molecules in terrestrial Mars analog samples’. Nature Astronomy, 8, 1513-1520
- Oliver, C.A., and Teece, B.L. (2023) ‘Astrobiology-related Virtual Field Trips in higher education settings: A six-year study’. Astrobiology, 23(8)
- Baumgartner, R.J., Teece, B.L., Rasmussen, B., Muhling, J., Rickard, W.D., Pejcic, B., Hu, S., Bourdet, J., Caruso, S., Van Kranendonk, M.J., Grice, K. (2023) ‘Exceptional preservation of organic matter and iron-organic colloidal mineralization in hydrothermal black smoker-type sulfide mineralization from the Paleoarchean seafloor’ Chemical Geology, 121296
- Teece, B.L., Havig, J.R., George, S.C., Hamilton, T.L., Baumgartner, R.J., Hartz, J., Van Kranendonk, M.J. (2023), ‘Biogeochemistry of recently fossilised hot spring sinters from Yellowstone, USA’. Astrobiology, 23(2)
- Teece, B. L., Guido, D., Campbell, K.A., Galar, A., Van Kranendonk M.J., George, S.C. (2022), ‘Exceptional molecular preservation in the late Jurassic Claudia palaeogeothermal field’. Organic Geochemistry, 173, P.104504
- Teece, B.L., George, S.C., Jacquet, S.M, Agbaje, O.B.A., Brock, G.A. (2020), ‘Mars rover techniques and lower-middle Cambrian microbialites from South Australia: Construction, biofacies and biogeochemistry’. Astrobiology, 20(5)
- Teece, B.L., George, S.C., Djokic, T, Campbell, K.A., Ruff, S.W., Van Kranendonk, M.J. (2020), ‘Biomolecules from fossilized hot-spring sinters: Implications for the search for life on Mars’. Astrobiology, 20(4)