Greg Laughlin

Educational Background:

• B.A. Physics, University of Illinois
• Ph.D. Astronomy, University of California, Santa Cruz

1. The dynamics of extrasolar planets: Over seventy extrasolar planets have been detected, and more systems are being detected every month. By studying the long-term orbital evolution of the new systems, we can gain insight into their formation, and thus obtain a better understanding of how our own solar system fits into the galaxy's inventory of planets. Other projects include an ongoing observational search for planets around high metallicity stars (in collaboration with Debra Fischer and Geoff Marcy at UC Berkeley), and the coordination of a detection network for transiting extrasolar planets.
2. The hydrodynamics of self-gravitating disks: This work is mainly geared toward understanding the growth and saturation of spiral density waves in protoplanetary disks. Spiral instabilities are a key mechanism for eliciting the transport of angular momentum through nascent planetary systems, and thus are very important to an overall understanding of planet formation.
3. Stellar evolution: Research topics in this area include the luminosity functions of white dwarfs and low mass stars, the metallicity distribution of stars in the solar neighborhood, the evolution of low mass red giants, and the stellar evolutionary consequences of the giant planet -- stellar metallicity connection.
4. The long-term evolution of the Universe: In collaboration with Fred Adams of the University of Michigan, we are studying processes which unfold over timescales greatly exceeding the Hubble Time. These include galactic evolution, the effects of proton decay, and processes involving black holes.

Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI Research
Director, Center for SETI Research

Jill Tarter holds the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) and is Director of the Center for SETI Research at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. Tarter received her Bachelor of Engineering Physics Degree with Distinction from Cornell University and her Master's Degree and a Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of California, Berkeley. She served as Project Scientist for NASA's SETI program, the High Resolution Microwave Survey, and has conducted numerous observational programs at radio observatories worldwide. Since the termination of funding for NASA's SETI program in 1993, she has served in a leadership role to secure private funding to continue the exploratory science. Currently, she serves on the management board for the Allen Telescope Array, a joint project between the SETI Institute and the UC Berkeley Radio Astronomy Laboratory. When this innovative array of 350 6-m antennas begins operations at the UC's Hat Creek Radio Observatory, it will simultaneously survey the radio universe for known and unexpected sources of astrophysical emissions, and speed up the search for radio emissions from other distant technologies by orders of magnitude.

Tarter's work has brought her wide recognition in the scientific community, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from Women in Aerospace, two Public Service Medals from NASA, Chabot Observatory's Person of the Year award (1997), Women of Achievement Award in the Science and Technology category by the Women's Fund and the San Jose Mercury News (1998), and the Tesla Award of Technology at the Telluride Tech Festival (2001). She was elected an AAAS Fellow in 2002 and a California Academy of Sciences Fellow in 2003. In 2004 Time Magazine named her one of the Time 100 most influential people in the world, and in 2005 Tarter was awarded the Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization at Wonderfest, the biannual San Francisco Bay Area Festival of Science.

Tarter is deeply involved in the education of future citizens and scientists. In addition to her scientific leadership at NASA and SETI Institute, Tarter has been the Principal Investigator for two curriculum development projects funded by NSF, NASA, and others. The first, the Life in the Universe series, created 6 science teaching guides for grades 3-9 (published 1994-96). Her second project, Voyages Through Time, is an integrated high school science curriculum on the fundamental theme of evolution in six modules: Cosmic Evolution, Planetary Evolution, Origin of Life, Evolution of Life, Hominid Evolution and Evolution of Technology (published 2003). Tarter is a frequent speaker for science teacher meetings and at museums and science centers, bringing her commitment to science and education to both teachers and the public. Many people are now familiar with her work as portrayed by Jodie Foster in the movie

Joel Primack is a professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz and works at the Lick Observatory. Dr. Primack received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1970. Dr. Primack's specific field of study is relativistic quantum field theory, cosmology and particle astrophysics. Joel Primack is also very much involved in supercomputer simulations of dark matter models and using computers to help students learn through interactive simulations.

Dr. Primack's most most well known for his co-authorship with Sandra Moore Faber and George Blumenthal of the Theory of Cold Dark Matter (CDM) during the 1970s. Joel Primack also just finished co-authoring a book with Nancy Abrams, View from the Center of the Universe.

Nancy Ellen Abrams is a lawyer, writer, and former Fulbright scholar, with a long-term interest in the history, philosophy, and politics of science. While working on the staff of the U.S. Congress, she co-created a novel method by which government agencies can make wise policy decisions in cases involving scientific uncertainty, and she has consulted on this for the Swedish government, several state governments, and various corporations. Her articles have appeared in journals, magazines, and books. She has also released three albums of her songs and performed in eighteen countries.

For a decade, Primack and Abrams have been co-teaching a course at the University of California Santa Cruz called "Cosmology and Culture," from which this book developed. They are married and have a daughter.

Gregory Benford (born January 30, 1941 in Mobile, Alabama) is an American science fiction author and physicist who is on the faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine.

As a science fiction author, Benford is best known for the Galactic Center Saga novels, beginning with In the Ocean of Night (1977). This series postulates a galaxy in which sentient organic life is in constant warfare with sentient mechanical life.

James Benford's principal interests are power beaming for space applications and high power microwave systems from conceptual designs to hardware. In 1996, Benford founded Microwave Sciences, Inc., a California Corporation specializing in microwave-related research. Dr. Benford has authored 110 papers related to research on microwave and pulsed power applications. He is the author of HIGH POWER MICROWAVES, Artech House, 1992. In 1996, he was elected a Fellow of the IEEE. The citation is "For development of high power microwave sources and for transferring this technology into custom products." He received his B.S. in Physics from the University of Oklahoma in 1963, his M.S. and Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California at San Diego in 1964 and 1969.

Her research interest is in brain and behavioral evolution in mammals. Her interdisciplinary research program focuses on cross-taxonomic comparisons of neurobiology, behavioral ecology, life history, and cognition in cetaceans and primates as a vehicle for examining the evolution of mammalian intelligence. At present, she has several ongoing projects which employ cetacean-primate comparisons in the following areas:

1) the relationship between behavioral ecology, life history, and encephalization
2) comparative neuroanatomical organization and function
3) cognitive development
4) paleoneurology and behavioral evolution.

Her educational background:

1995; Ph.D. Psychobiology; State University of New York at Albany
1989; M.A. Psychology, Miami University, Ohio
1982; B.A. Psychology, New York University

Affiliate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences,
University of Washington School of Medicine
Neuroscientist and evolutionary biologist One of main players in Foundation for the Future Many books.

Particularly The River that Runs Uphill: From the Big Bang to the Big Brain William H. Calvin, Ph.D., is a Professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is a well-known popularizer of neuroscience and evolutionary biology, including the hybrid of these two fields, neural Darwinism. He relates abrupt climate change to human evolution and speculates about the future.

He is a PI in the Astrobiology Institute: An Astronomical Search for the Essential Ingredients for Life: Placing our Habitable System in Context

He is carrying out investigations concerning the astronomical constraints on the possible origins of life in the Universe.

He is currently working on astrochemical investigations- the first concerns the building blocks of life, the second on the formation and evolution of habitable worlds, and the third is aimed at the characterization of planetary systems

She is an archaeologist and anthropologist. At the broadest level, her research examines scholarly and popular ideas about Others, their relationships to us, and how we can know them. The Others she studies include the ancient (in archaeology), the animal (in zoos), and the alien (in SETI).

Most recently, She has been focusing on the scientific Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence [SETI], particularly scientists' conceptions of the alien Other. She studies scientists' reasoning processes (e.g. use of Earth civilizations and historical intercultural contacts as analogies), the technology and sites used to search the sky for signals, and ideas about how one might communicate with a radically different intelligence.

Much of her earlier work focused upon the ancient Other. Her research has addressed disparate ways of of knowing, creating, and representing the archaeological past, and related topics in the philosophy of archaeology. The role of the past in the present is a recurring theme in her writing and teaching; She is particularly concerned with ethics, power, and commodification in the treatment of cultural heritage. She is engaged by the possibility that meaningful and inclusive public dialogues about human history can help us cope with present and future challenges in our own civilization.

Through her work on zoos, She has been exploring ideas concerning the animal Other. She is examining convergent discourses about natural and cultural heritage preservation, and the changing rhetoric and practices of captivity.

One of the many joys of working in anthropology is the tremendous variety of subjects to investigate. One of her favorite projects in 2006 was a documentary about vampires, for the Discovery Channel (airing 2007). The natural history and folklore of the vampire are fascinating, and the vampire is yet another example of humanity's ever-present Others. Tales of the undead are ubiquitous, ancient, and always changing; each society creates the vampire it needs.

SETI Institute Senior Astronomer

Seth is an astronomer with a BA in physics from Princeton and a PhD in astronomy from Caltech, and is involved with the Institute's SETI research. He is also responsible for much of the outreach activities of the Institute. He is science editor for "The Explorer", gives more than 50 talks annually for both academic and general audiences, and writes magazine articles (and books) about SETI. He also teaches informal education classes on astronomy and other topics in the Bay Area, and is the inventor of the electrical banana, a circumstance he claims has had little positive effect on his life. He is the host for the SETI Institute's weekly radio program Are We Alone?

Before coming to SETI, Seth did research work on galaxies using radio telescopes at observatories and universities in America and Europe. His avocations include photography, filmmaking, and electronics.

Seth has produced a series of lectures on tape and video on the subject of SETI.

Director of Beyond
Institute for Fundamental Concepts in Science
Arizona State University

Paul Charles William Davies is a British-born, physicist, writer and broadcaster. He currently holds the position of College Professor at Arizona State University, and has held previous academic appointments at the University of Cambridge, University of London, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, University of Adelaide and Macquarie University. His research interests are in the fields of cosmology, quantum field theory, and astrobiology. He has proposed that a one-way trip to Mars could be a viable option.

He is the author of over twenty books, including The Mind of God, Other Worlds, God and the New Physics, The Edge of Infinity, The Runaway Universe, The Cosmic Blueprint, Are We Alone? The Fifth Miracle, The Last Three Minutes, Superforce, The Accidental Universe, About Time, How to Build a Time Machine, The Goldilocks Enigma and Dropping the Chase: The Enigmas of the Goddess.

Jack McDevitt is an American science fiction author whose novels frequently deal with attempts to make contact with alien races and archaeology (or xenoarchaeology).

McDevitt's first published story was "The Emerson Effect" in Twilight Zone in 1981. Two years later, he published his first novel, The Hercules Text, about the discovery of an intelligently-conceived signal whose repercussions threaten human civilization. This novel set the tone for many of McDevitt's following novels, which focused on making first contact. Frequently this theme is mixed with both trepidation before the unknown and a sense of wonder at the universe.

With The Engines of God (1994), McDevitt introduced the idea of a universe which was once teeming with intelligent species, but only contains abandoned artifacts by the time humans arrive on the scene. Although it was initially written as a standalone novel, the main character of The Engines of God, pilot Priscilla Hutchins, has since appeared in four more books, Deepsix (2001), Chindi (2002), Omega (2003), and Odyssey (2006). Despite two intervening volumes, the mystery surrounding the destructive Omega Clouds (which are introduced in The Engines of God) is left unexplored until Omega

Marvin Minsky holds a BA in Mathematics from Harvard (1950) and a PhD in the same field from Princeton (1954). He has been on the MIT faculty since 1958. He is currently Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, and Professor of electrical engineering and computer science.

Minsky won the Turing Award in 1969, the Japan Prize in 1990, the IJCAI Award for Research Excellence in 1991, and the Benjamin Franklin Medal from the Franklin Institute in 2001.

Minsky's patents include the first head-mounted graphical display (1963) and the confocal scanning microscope (1961, a predecessor to today's widely used confocal laser scanning microscope). He developed with Seymour Papert the first Logo "turtle". Minsky also built, in 1951, the first randomly wired neural network learning machine, SNARC.

Minsky wrote the book Perceptrons (with Seymour A. Papert), which became the foundational work in the analysis of artificial neural networks. It contains strong criticisms of unrigorous research in the field at the time. Its proof that perceptrons cannot solve even some simple problems such as XOR caused the virtual disappearance of artificial neural networks from academic research during the 1970s, until researchers could prove that more complex networks are capable of solving these and all functions.[

Jaipal Kenneth Tuttle received his PhD in Theoretical Physics from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1993. His doctoral research was conducted in conjunction with Stanford University and in the field of Quantum General Relativity. He received his Masters of Arts in Physics and his Masters of Arts in Mathematics from Yale University in 1988. He received his Bachelors of Arts in Physics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1987.

From March 2001 to the present date Jaipal has been developing the quantitative trading model used by MESA Asset Management. From March 1994 to March 2001 he was employed by Morgan Stanley. The final position held by Jaipal at Morgan Stanley was as the senior trader on a global proprietary trading desk that based all of its decision on the results of quantitative modeling. He also developed or assisted in the development of computer-driven trading models and market impact models.

Dr. Jonathan Trent is a research scientist at NASA Ames Research Center and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Biomolecular Engineering at U.C. Santa Cruz. After receiving a Ph.D. degree at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, he spent six years in Europe at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Germany, the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, and the University of Paris at Orsay in France. He returned to the U.S.A. to work at the Boyer Center for Molecular Medicine at Yale Medical School and Argonne National Laboratory before coming to NASA Ames Research Center and U.C. Santa Cruz.

For many years, Dr. Trent's research has focused on "extremophiles" (microbes living in physical and chemical extreme environments). He has been studying how the macromolecules of these organisms are adapted to function under extreme conditions of temperature, pH, radiation, and high concentrations of what for human beings are toxic chemicals. While investigating a specific class of proteins, critical for extremophiles living in hot sulfuric acid (85 C/pH 2), he realized that the structures these proteins spontaneously form could have potentially valuable applications in nano-technology.

Since 1999, he and his group at NASA Ames Research Center have been exploring how the inherent properties of extremophilic proteins can be combined with genetic engineering to form self-assembled patterns with uses for templates, masks, or functional arrays. His group, which includes experts in protein crystallography, molecular biology, materials chemistry, and microbiology, are studying proteins that self-assemble into filaments or two- and three- dimensional crystals. They have created self-assembled ordered arrays of conducting and semi-conducting nanoparticles, such as gold and CdSe-ZnS quantum dots. They have demonstrated that such a protein-based technology may well be a viable alternative to nano-scale lithographic processes. Recently, Prof. Sunjay Bannerjee's group at the University of Texas, Austin has use a protein array like the one developed in the Trent lab to template the assembly of PbSe nanocrystals and formed a functional flash-memory device. The Trent lab, in collaboration with colleagues at Universities and National Labs, continues to develop extremophile protein nanotechnology for applications such as magnetic-media data storage, sensing devices, and catalysis arrays.

Ashok N. Srivastava, Ph.D. is the Principal Investigator for the Integrated Vehicle Health Management research project at NASA which has a five-year budget of over $130M. The goal of the project is to develop technologies for diagnostics, detection, and prognostics for air transportation systems.

He also leads the Data Mining group at NASA Ames Research Center. The group performs research and development of advanced machine learning and data mining algorithms in support of NASA missions. He is the lead researcher for numerous programs at NASA, including those involved with improving aviation safety, development of new technologies to improve the safety of next generation propulsion systems, fundamental studies in the earth sciences to understand climate change, and studies in astrophysics regarding the large-scale structure of the universe.

Ashok was Deputy Technical Area Lead for the Discovery and Systems Health department at NASA Ames Research Center until May 2006. In this role, he co-managed a research department of over 70 Ph.D. and M.S. level researchers in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, and Systems Science. Ashok has given seminars in numerous international conferences and recently gave a televised presentation of his work. Ashok has a range of business experience including serving as Senior Director at Blue Martini Software and Senior Consultant at IBM. In these roles, he led engagements with numerous Fortune Global 500 companies including Bank of America, Chrysler Corporation, Saks 5th Avenue, Sprint, Chevron, and LG Semiconductor.

He has won numerous awards, including the NASA Distinguished Performance Award, NASA Group Achievement Awards, the IBM Golden Circle Award, the Department of Education Merit Fellowship, and several fellowships from the University of Colorado. Ashok holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder.