The eighteenth Giordano Bruno Memorial Award, announced at the 2013 SETI League annual meeting, went to former NASA Chief Historian Dr. Steven Dick, for technical excellence in the service of SETI. Dick is author of many SETI-related publications, most notably his books The Biological Universe, Life on other Worlds, and Many Worlds. He has been keynote speaker at the 2002 SETIcon conference and the 2008 technical conference of SETI League affiliate SARA, the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers. He serves alongside several other SETI League members on the SETI Committee of the International Academy of Astronautics. Details appear in this press release. SETI League photo

2013

The seventeenth Giordano Bruno Memorial Award was presented at the Giordano Bruno statue in Rome on 29 September 2012, to physicist Dr. Gerry Harp, who serves as Director of SETI Research at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. Details appear in this Press Release. Harp is seen here in the Mt. Lassen National Forest, not far from the Allen Telescope Array, with former Bruno Award recipient Dr. Jill Tarter. SETI Institute photo

2012

The sixteenth Giordano Bruno Memorial Award, announced at the 2011 SETI League annual meeting, went to Christian Monstein, HB9SCT, for his development of the CALLISTO global network of solar spectrometers. Details appear in this press release. Christian is seen here explaining his spectrometer design at the EuroSETI04 conference in Germany, seven years ago. N6TX photo

2011

At the 2010 American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS) meeting in San Diego, radio astronomer Jill Tarter presents this year's Giordano Bruno Memorial Award to Dan Werthimer of the Space Sciences Lab, University of California, Berkeley. In his position as Chief Scientist of the landmark SETI@home project, Werthimer has succeeded in coordinating some 5.2 million users worldwide in distributed processing of observational data gathered at the Arecibo Radio Observatory in Puerto Rico. Werthimer is responsible for various other UC Berkeley SETI searches at radio, infrared and visible wavelengths. Tarter was last year's Bruno Award recipient. See this Press Release for details. SETI League photo

2010

The SETI League's 2009 Giordano Bruno Memorial Award goes to Dr. Jill Cornell Tarter, a prominent radio astronomer and arguably the world's best known SETI scientist. Jill, a longtime SETI League member, holds the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI at the SETI Institute, Mountain View CA, is a former NASA SETI scientist, was the lead astronomer for the SETI Institute's Project Phoenix all-sky survey, and is principal investigator at their Allen Telescope Array now coming online in Northern California. She is seen here at the Nancay Radio Observatory in France, where she was involved in SETI observations two decades ago. See this Press Release for details. SETI League photo

2009

The SETI League recognized Dr. Ivan Almar of the Konkoly Observatory, Budapest, with its 2008 Giordano Bruno Memorial Award, for technical excellence in the service of SETI. Almar is the originator of the San Marino Scale, an analytical tool for assessing the impact of transmissions from Earth. This scale was adopted in September, 2007 by the SETI Permanent Study Group of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), lending a quantitative basis to discussions of policy regarding Active SETI experiments. Previously, Dr. Almar had co-authored the Rio Scale, another analytical tool adopted by the IAA, used for quantifying the significance of extraterrestrial signals received on Earth. A Full Member of the IAA, Almar has been an active member of its SETI Committee since its inception more than three decades ago. See this Press Release for details. SETI League photo

2008

Dr. Robert Melville, WB3EFT (right) received The SETI League's 2007 Giordano Bruno Memorial Award, for conducting the first-ever SETI observations from the South Pole. The presentation was made at the 2007 Annual Membership Meeting by SETI League Awards Committee chairman David Ocame. See this Press Release for details. Pat Santoro photo

2007

The SETI League's 2006 Bruno award was presented by telephone from the Annual Membership Meeting in New Jersey, and then later in person at the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA) conference at NRAO Green Bank, WV. This year's recipient is Marcus Leech, VE3MDL, in recognition of his contribution of signal analysis software to the GnuRadio open-source project. See this Press Release for details. SETI League photo

2006

2005

From The SETI League's 2005 Annual Membership Meeting in New Jersey, SETI League awards committee chairman David Ocame (left) rang up this year's Bruno recipient by cellphone, to announce his award. James Brown, W6KYP (seen at right with his Project Argus radio telescope) was honored for 28 years of amateur SETI activity, including distribution of free tracking, coordination, and signal analysis software through his seti.net domain. See this Press Release for details. (left) SETI League photo; (right) W6KYP photo

Stelio Montebugnoli, who heads the SETI Italia project from the Medecina radio telescopes in Italy, was honored at EuroSETI04, The SETI League's first European SETI Science and Technology Workshop, with the annual Giordano Bruno Memorial Award, for significant contributions to SETI science. See this Press Release for details. SETI League photo

2004

The 2003 Giordano Bruno Memorial Award went to SETI pioneer Philip Morrison and his wife Phylis Morrison (in memoriam). The Morrisons, best known to the general public for their many books, articles, and public television programs on a variety of science topics, long encouraged active participation in SETI science by amateur and professional observers alike. Executive director H. Paul Shuch and Awards Committee chairman David Ocame made the presentation to Prof. Morrison via audio teleconference. Further details appear in this Press Release. SETI League photo

2003

The 2002 Bruno Award was presented by executive director H. Paul Shuch (right) to Claudio Maccone of the Centre for Astrodynamics in Turin, in recognition of his technical leadership within the International Academy of Astronautics, and specifically for his efforts to establish a radio observatory on the far side of the Moon. Dr. Maccone is, significantly, the first Italian to win the Bruno award, which was established in 1995 and is dedicated to the memory of Giordano Bruno, the Italian monk burned at the stake in 1600 for postulating the multiplicity of inhabited worlds. See related press release. Claudio Maccone photo

2002

The 2001 Bruno Award was presented by Awards Committee chairman David Ocame (right) to Peter Wright, DJ0BI, founder of the European Radio Astronomy Club. With the help of his wife Angelika Gherke he publishes "The European Bit," an extensive quarterly newsletter, and chaired the first two European Radio Astronomy Congresses in Heppenheim Germany. Peter built the radio telescope which is the basis of the ERAC club station, was the first European participant in The SETI League's Project Argus sky survey, and volunteered to serve as one of The SETI League's first Regional Coordinators. See related press release. SETI League photo

2001

Optical SETI pioneer Stuart Kingsley (left) accepts the 2000 Bruno Award from executive director H. Paul Shuch. Dr. Kingsley, director of the Columbus Optical SETI Observatory, has been a voice in the wilderness for at least the past ten years, his optical observatory among the first to search for laser communications from space. The scientific establishment is only now beginning to embrace OSETI, due in large part to Kingsley's research, publications and conference presentations. See related press release. SETI League photo

2000

SETI League executive director H. Paul Shuch (left) presents the 1999 Bruno award to Noel Cedric Welstead, VK4AYW. Welstead is credited with building the first amateur SETI observatory in Australia (and probably the first such station in the Southern Hemisphere). He volunteered early on to serve as The SETI League's regional coordinator for Eastern Australia. In that capacity he has given numerous radio, TV and newspaper interviews, spoken about SETI at civic organizations, and hosted a SETI League wine-and-cheese reception at the January 1998 "SETI in the 21st Century" Conference at University of Western Sydney, Macarthur. He also most generously hosted The SETI League's executive director, who visited Australia to present an invited paper at that Conference. See related press release. SETI League photo

1999

SETI League secretary Heather Wood presents the 1998 Bruno award to volunteer Regional Coordinators, Ken Chattenton G4KIR (left) and Trevor Unsworth G0ECP. Their English model for local involvement served as the basis for the current SETI League volunteer Field Organization. Ken and Trevor were the first of a network which has now grown to about fifty regional coordinators on six continents, supporting an expanding membership base. The SETI League owes its current international profile in no small part to the vision and energies of these two dedicated volunteers. See related press release. Heather Wood photo

1998

SETI League Software Committee chairman Daniel Boyd Fox, KF9ET (right) receives the 1997 Bruno Award from executive director H. Paul Shuch. Fox, who developed the basic radio telescope block diagram duplicated by dozens of other experimenters around the world, built one of the first amateur SETI listening stations. On December 1, 1996, he received an interesting (though unconfirmed) candidate signal, one of the first detected in the privatized search for other intelligent life in space. His SetiFox computer program, which sifts through the cosmic static for artificial patterns, is widely used by Project Argus participants. See related press release. SETI League photo

1997

The very first Bruno award was presented to D. Kent Cullers, WA6TWX (left) by executive director H. Paul Shuch, at the 1996 American Association for the Advancement of Science SETI dinner in Baltimore MD. Dr. Cullers, who has been blind since birth, believes that no human eyes are any more sensitive than his, when it comes to detecting alien civilizations. But radio receivers and computers, he reasons, have advanced in recent years to a level which makes searching the cosmos for other civilizations finally practical. It was Cullers who developed the signal detection software for both the late NASA SETI program, and the current Project Phoneix targeted search being conducted by the SETI Institute, where he is employed. See related press release. SETI League photo

1996