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NEWS RELEASE

09-18-02

Contacts:
Pat Miller, Lectures, (515) 294-9934
Skip Derra, News Service, (515) 294-4917

PIONEER IN THE SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE WILL SPEAK AT IOWA STATE

AMES, Iowa -- Frank Drake, a pioneer in the search for life outside of the solar system, will speak at Iowa State University at 8 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 24, in the Molecular Biology Auditorium (room 1414). Drake's talk will be on "The Scientific Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence." It is free and open to the public.

Throughout his career, Drake has played an instrumental role in the search for extraterrestrial intelligent life. He is one of the world's best-known astronomers, and is creator of the Drake equation, which is used to estimate the number of technical civilizations that may exist in the Milky Way galaxy.

Drake initiated the first scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence via radio signals in 1960; he directed the Arecibo Observatory -- one of the largest radio telescopes in the world -- from 1966-68; and today, as chairman of the Board of Trustees, he is a guiding force behind the SETI Institute, Mountain View, Calif. The privately funded institute works to explore, understand and explain the origin, nature, prevalence and distribution of life in the universe. Drake also is professor emeritus of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

He participates in Project Phoenix, the most powerful system for searching for radio signals from other civilizations. It is being used to search for intelligent signals from some 1,000 of the nearest solar-type stars and from star-rich regions of the Milky Way.

Drake designs large radio telescopes that are used in the search for extraterrestrial life, and he works on the theory of optimum strategies for the detection of rare objects and transient events in the cosmos.

Drake is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He has served as president of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

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