Leading SETI Researcher to Speak

by Dave Finley, NRAO

SOCORRO, N.M., Oct. 30, 2001 -- A leading figure in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) and in developing sophisticated arrays of radio telescopes will present the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's annual Karl G. Jansky Lecture in Socorro on Friday, November 9, at 8:00 p.m., at Macey Center on the New Mexico Tech campus.

William J. (Jack) Welch, professor of electrical engineering and astronomy at the University of California - Berkeley, will speak on "Astronomical Arrays for the Future: Astronomy, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, and More." The lecture is free and the public is invited.

"The Jansky Lecture has a long and distinguished history, and is truly one of the most significant honors in the field of radio astronomy," said Paul Vanden Bout, director of the NRAO. "More than a recognition of outstanding achievement by one's peers, the Jansky Lectureship allows renowned scientists like Jack Welch to share their unique insights with the public in an interactive and entertaining fashion."

Welch holds the Watson and Marilyn Alberts Chair in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence at the University of California at Berkeley. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the SETI Institute, where he previously served as vice chairman, and currently is overseeing the development of the Allen Telescope Array, the first major facility being built for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

Previously, Welch served as the director of U.C. Berkeley's Radio Astronomy Laboratory, where he oversaw the construction and later operation of the BIMA (Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Association) Millimeter Array. Welch also made important contributions to the study of interstellar molecules, including the initial discovery of water vapor and ammonia. The Jansky Lectureship honors his pioneering contributions to the development of millimeter interferometry.

This is the thirty-sixth Jansky Lectureship, an honor established by the trustees of Associated Universities, Inc., to recognize outstanding contributions to the advancement of astronomy. First
awarded in 1966, it is named in honor of the man who, in 1932, first detected radio waves from a cosmic source. Karl Jansky's discovery of radio waves from the central region of our Milky Way Galaxy started the science of radio astronomy. Recent recipients of the Jansky award include Nobel laureates Drs. Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson of AT&T Bell Laboratories; Dr. Joseph H. Taylor of Princeton University; the late Professor William F. Fowler of the California Institute of Technology; and the late Professor S. Chandrasekhar of the University of Chicago.

Welch's public lecture in Socorro will follow a day-long technical symposium, in which astronomers from universities, observatories and national laboratories throughout New Mexico will present recent research results.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

Additional information is available on the NRAO website: http://www.nrao.edu