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SETI League Presents Annual Awards
For more information contact: Dr. H. Paul Shuch, Executive Director
(201) 641-1770, or email info_at_setileague_dot_org

Ewing, NJ.., 26 April 2003 -- At its annual Awards Banquet this evening at The College of New Jersey, the nonprofit SETI League, leaders in a global search for extra-terrestrial intelligence, recognized two SETI pioneers and a respected social scientist for major contributions to the art and science of SETI. Honored were noted physicist and astronomer Dr. Philip Morrison and his educator wife, the late Phylis Morrison, and University of Toronto futurist Prof. Allen Tough.

The Morrisons, best known to the general public for their many books, articles, and public television programs on a variety of science topics, were joint recipients of the 2003 Giordano Bruno Memorial Award, established eight years ago in honor of the Italian monk burned at the stake in 1600 for voicing a belief in the existence of other inhabited worlds. Though never burned at the stake, Philip Morrison co-authored in 1959 the controversial article which first proposed the techniques now routinely used by radio astronomers to seek out other civilizations in the cosmos. The Morrisons, both longtime SETI League members, encouraged active participation in SETI science by amateur and professional observers alike. In fact Philip Morrison, who started his quest as a young radio amateur in the 1930s, has provided guidance and inspiration to those radio hams who founded, and comprise much of the membership of, the grass-roots SETI League.

Allen Tough, one of The SETI League's earliest members and staunchest supporters, received the second annual Orville N. Greene Service Award, which honors the memory of patent attorney and SETI League co-founder Orville Greene. Tough has long been involved in the speculative side of SETI science, through his teaching, writing, and participation on SETI committees within the International Academy of Astronautics and the International Astronomical Union. He has served The SETI League in a number of volunteer roles, including Regional Coordinator and founding Chairman of the organization's Strategic Planning Committee. He is the author of an Internet-based Invitation to ETI, to which over 80 scientists, educators, authors, artists, and futurists are now signatory.

SETI scientists seek to determine through microwave and optical measurements whether humankind is alone in the universe. Since Congress terminated NASA's SETI funding in 1993, The SETI League and other scientific groups have been attempting to privatize the research. Experimenters interested in participating in the search for intelligent alien life, or citizens wishing to help support it, should email to join_at_setileague_dot_org, check the SETI League Web site at http://www.setileague.org/, send a fax to +1 (201) 641-1771, or contact The SETI League, Inc. membership hotline at +1 (800) TAU-SETI. Be sure to provide us with a postal address to which we will mail further information. The SETI League, Inc. is a membership-supported, non-profit [501(c)(3)], educational and scientific corporation dedicated to the electromagnetic Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence.

P.S. Tearsheets are always appreciated. Thank you.

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