Presented by Wonderfest
When science fiction portrays the galaxy as an arena of interstellar commerce and, occasionally, of star wars, could it be accurate? We now know that billions of hospitable, Earth-like planets are sprinkled throughout our Milky Way Galaxy. Yet billions of short-term searches for ET have turned up nothing. Where is everybody?! Premier planet hunter Geoff Marcy and expert alien detective Dan Werthimer will debate this most fascinating of scientific questions: Are We Alone in the Cosmos?
Following the debate, Paul Salazar, the Urban Astronomer will present a laser-guided tour of the night sky after the debate, weather permitting.
Speakers
Dan Wertheimer
Dan Werthimer is SETI@home Chief Scientist and director of the SETI Research
Center at the University of California, Berkeley. Werthimer also directs the Center
for Astronomy Signal Processing and Electronics Research, and is associate
director of the Berkeley Wireless Research Center. Werthimer was 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. He has taught at
universities in Peru, Egypt, Ghana, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Kenya.
Werthimer is co-author of "SETI 2020″, editor of "BioAstronomy: Molecules,
Microbes and Extraterrestrial Life" and "Astronomical and Biochemical Origins
and the Search for Life in the Universe".
Geoff Marcy
Geoffrey W. Marcy is a professor of astronomy at the University of California. He is also the director of Berkeley's Center for Integrative Planetary Science. Marcy's research focuses on the detection of extrasolar planets and brown dwarfs. His team has discovered about half of the 350 known planets around other stars, including the first multiple-planet system, the first Saturn-mass planets, and the first Neptune-mass planet. Marcy is the recipient of numerous awards, including the prestigious Shaw Prize in 2005, Discovery Magazine's Space Scientist of the Year in 2003, the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement, the Carl Sagan Award, the Beatrice Tinsley Prize, and the Henry Draper Medal from the National Academy of Sciences. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences.
