Project Phoenix, the successor to NASA's SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Program, searches nearby sun-like stars for signals concentrated in the frequency-time plane, using multiple sites. If exactly the same signal is detected from more than one earth-based location, interferometric tests can determine whether or not the received signal is extraterrestrial.
The practical difficulties of multiple site detection include different receiving apertures, noise induced false alarms, and the occasional spacecraft in the wrong place at the wrong time. We are now reaching our ideal detection limits in an algorithmic sense, and the major barrier to better detection is the interference from our own transmissions. In designing new systems for SETI, we will concentrate on eliminating our own "intelligent" signals.
About the speaker:
Kent Cullers was born in El Reno, Oklahoma. He was premature and, consequently, immersed in pure oxygen. This saved his life but left him totally blind. Despite this "handicap," he was physically active as a child, and encouraged by his parents to be a part of the educational mainstream. He was a straight-A student, a national merit scholar and class valedictorian at Temple City High School in California. He received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1980 (the first totally blind physicist in the United States).
Kent worked for NASA's Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence program upon graduating from Berkeley. From 1985 to 1990 he was the Targeted Search Signal Detection Team Leader with the SETI Institute. He developed, evaluated, and implemented optimized detection algorithms for continuous and pulsed signals originating from distant Earth-like planets. He created algorithms for both advanced special purpose and general purpose computers.
From 1990 to March 1994 he was the Signal Detection Subsystem Manager for the High Resolution Microwave Survey (HRMS) Project at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California. He supervised the development of hardware and software for signal detection for HRMS. From 1993 to March 1994 Kent led the SETI Research & Technology effort and managed the upgrading and replication of all the digital data processing equipment for HRMS. NASA's HRMS Project was cancelled by Congress in October 1993, but Kent is still participating in Project Phoenix, the SETI Institute's continuation of the Targeted Search portion of HRMS. He resigned from NASA in October 1995, and rejoined the SETI Institute as a Senior Scientist and Project Manager for Project Phoenix.
Kent has been the recipient of many honors and awards, including Federal Employee of the Year (1994) and NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement medal in March 1993. He is a member of the American Astronomical Society, a board member of the San Francisco Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and a member of several scientific committees. He travels extensively to give talks and present papers at international science meetings. Kent has had a ham radio license since 1961, is an avid chess player, and plays both piano and guitar.
Contact information:
Kent Cullers
SETI Institute
2035 Landings Drive
Mountain View, CA 94043