Helen Greenwood Hansma

Helen Hansma is a biophysicist and emeritus faculty at UC Santa Barbara [UCSB]. She developed an interest in biology during high school and was encouraged by a chemistry teacher to pursue biochemistry, ultimately becoming a biophysicist. Her notable work includes applying the atomic force microscope to biology, following a key invention by her husband, Paul Hansma, and she has proposed a new theory for the origin of life - that life originated between the sheets of mica in micaceous clay. Hansma donates to climate change research by women at UC Santa Barbara and previously presented at many conferences before her stroke. Her thesis advisor was Ching Kung, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences who had been a barefoot doctor in China. She is also grateful for the friendship and mentoring of Beazy Sweeney, a former professor at UCSB and a former neighbor.