Barry E. DiGregorio is the founder and director of the International Committee Against Mars Sample Return (ICAMSR), which urges the scientific and environmental communities to consider avoiding the return of Martian samples directly to Earth. He is a research associate for the Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology in UK and a professional science writer. He is also the author of the book "Mars: The Living Planet,” a 1997 re-examination of the Viking biology results.