Is Anyone Out There?

Synopsis

What is the possibility of other intelligent life in the universe? Can we detect radio, infrared, or visible light signals from alien civilizations? Current and future projects searching for such signals, including the new $100-million Breakthrough Prize Foundation Listen project, may provide an answer. Dan Werthimer will describe the plans for future searches and show how new technologies are revolutionizing the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI). He will also describe the SETI@home project, which analyzes data from the world's largest radio telescopes using desktop computers and cell phones from millions of volunteers, forming one of Earth's most powerful supercomputers.


Bio:
Dan Werthimer is the Chief Scientist at the Berkeley SETI Research Center, overseeing SETI@home, the $100 million Breakthrough Listen project, and several other SETI programs. He also directs the Center for Astronomy Signal Processing and Electronics Research (CASPER) and is associate director of the Berkeley Wireless Research Center (BWRC). He has been Associate Professor in the engineering and physics-archive departments of SF State University and a visiting professor at Beijing Normal University, the University of St. Charles in Marseille, and Eotvos University in Budapest. He has taught at universities in Peru, Egypt, Ghana, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Kenya. Dan was in the “Homebrew Computer Club” with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak;
everyone in that club became ultra-rich, except Dan.