Is Anybody Out There? A Pioneering Scientist on Our Most Advanced Search Yet for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

The scale of the endeavor is, quite literally, astronomical. And the goal — detecting other intelligent life somewhere in the universe — would change the history of humankind forever.

Given the vastness of the universe, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) could be seen as either a fool’s errand or a triumph in the making. In “Is Anybody Out There?,” Berkeley SETI Research Center chief scientist Dan Werthimer will discuss the possibility of other intelligent life in the universe and our odds of finding it. Then, he’ll show us how new technologies are revolutionizing our search, allowing us to probe at least a million of Earth’s closest stars and a hundred of our closest galaxies for life.

Diving into the latest SETI endeavors as well as future initiatives, Werthimer gives an inspiring glimpse into the lengths to which earthlings will go to find celestial signals.

Bio

Dan Werthimer is Chief Scientist of the Berkeley Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Research Center and principal investigator of SETI@home as well as several radio and optical SETI programs. He has testified before congress, won the Drake Award for SETI research and the Carl Sagan award for science education, and published 250 papers in astronomy and science education. Werthimer is editor of “BioAstronomy: Molecules, Microbes and Extraterrestrial Life” and “Astronomical and Biochemical Origins and the Search for Life in the Universe.”

Werthimer also directs the Center for Astronomy Signal Processing and Electronics Research (CASPER). CASPER instrumentation made the first image of a black hole, discovered many pulsars and fast radio bursts as well as a planet made from solid diamond. 

Werthimer has been associate professor in the engineering and physics departments of San Francisco State University and a visiting professor at Beijing Normal University, the University of St. Charles in Marseille, and Eotvos University in Budapest. 

Working with UNESCO, Werthimer taught science education at universities in Peru, Egypt, Ghana, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Kenya.

Dan Werthimer was in the “Homebrew Computer Club” with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak; everyone in that club became ultra-rich, except Werthimer.