Search for extraterrestrial intelligence focus of talk Thursday at Laboratory's Bradbury Science Museum

Contact: Steve Sandoval, steves@lanl.gov, (505) 665-9206 (04-014)

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LOS ALAMOS, N.M., March 5, 2004 -- The ongoing search for extraterrestrial intelligence will be discussed by Jill Tarter of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Research Institute at a talk at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, March 11, in Los Alamos National Laboratory's Bradbury Science Museum.

Her talk, "Life, the Universe and SETI in a Nutshell," is free and open to the public though seating is limited.

Tarter is the endowed Bernard M. Oliver Chair at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif.

Tarter received her undergraduate degree in engineering physics from Cornell University and her doctoral degree in astronomy from the University of California at Berkeley, where her major field of study was theoretical high-energy astrophysics. As a graduate student at UC, Berkeley, Tarter became involved in the beginning stages of a small search for radio signals from extraterrestrial civilizations using the Hat Creek Observatory 85-foot telescope. That project, SERENDIP, underwent many stops and starts and overhauls (and is still ongoing), and it provided a natural introduction to the newly formed Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Program Office at NASA Ames Research Center.

As a principal investigator for the non-profit SETI Institute, Tarter served as project scientist for NASA's High Resolution Microwave Survey. As such, she had the opportunity to meld together old and new engineering skills with knowledge of the observable universe, in order to conduct and plan for thorough observations of the sky through a set of narrow band and pulse sensitive filters never before systematically employed by astronomers.

Tarter is in Los Alamos to give a talk earlier that day to 150 girls in grades eight through 10 from throughout Northern New Mexico as part of the annual Expanding Your Horizons workshop. The Laboratory is a cosponsor of the annual workshop designed to promote the continuing advancement in mathematics and science education.

Tarter received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Women in Aerospace, two public service medals from NASA, Chabot Observatory's Person of the Year Award in 1997, Women of Achievement Award in Science and Technology by the Women's Fund and the San Jose Mercury News in 1998 and the Tesla Award of Technology at the Telluride Technology Festival in 2001. She was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2002 and a California Academy of Sciences Fellow in 2003. She also created science teaching guides "Life in the Universe" and "Voyages through Time" for elementary, middle school and high school students.

The Bradbury Science Museum is located at 15th Street and Central Avenue in downtown Los Alamos. Museum hours apart from special events are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Friday and 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday through Monday.

The Bradbury Science Museum is part of Los Alamos' Public Affairs Office.

For more information, contact Pat Berger at 665-0896.

Los Alamos National Laboratory is operated by the University of California for the National Nuclear Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy and works in partnership with NNSA's Sandia and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories to support NNSA in its mission.

Los Alamos enhances global security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, developing technical solutions to reduce the threat of weapons of mass destruction and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health and national security concerns

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