Search for ET – Oct 15

Humans have sought “signs from above” for millennia. The scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) began circa 1960, and, today, grows ever deeper and more technologically diverse. The scope of modern research is breathtaking. Methods include targeted searches for electromagnetic (EM) signals near known Earth-like exoplanets, continuous EM scans over the entire sky (e.g., PANOSETI at the Bay Area’s Lick Observatory, pictured), the hunt for exotic forms of communication, and the careful search for ET artifacts on/near Earth.

Our speaker, Dan Werthimer, is Chief Scientist at the Berkeley SETI Research Center. He is also co-founder of SETI@Home, and principal investigator of CASPER, the Center for Astronomy Signal Processing and Electronics Research. Since 1979, Dan has helped to design and build numerous sensitive tools for the detection of ET. In 2019, Dan earned Wonderfest’s Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization. And, in 2021, he received the prestigious Frank Drake Award of the SETI Institute.