The SETI League, Inc. Press Release No. 03-04

SETI League Press Release

SETI Journal Announces Best Ideas Awards
For more information contact: Dr. H. Paul Shuch, Executive Director
(201) 641-1770, or email info_at_setileague_dot_org

Little Ferry, NJ.., May 2003 -- The editors of Contact In Context, an online academic journal published by the nonprofit SETI League, are pleased to announce the first winners of their newly established "Best Ideas Awards". The aim is to highlight recent publications that have contributed especially fresh, bold, profound ideas that are valuable to people engaged in the scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Each award consists of a large plaque and a check for $500. One such award is given annually for a paper or essay published in Contact in Context during the previous 12 months. Another is issued to any type of publication (such as a book, chapter, journal article, conference paper, journal, web document, or monograph) relevant to SETI research.

The journal editors announced the 2003 winners at the Annual Awards Banquet, which concluded The SETI League's recent SETICon03 Technical Symposium. The winner in the Contact in Context category was a paper on "Solar System SETI Using Radio Telescope Arrays" by Bruce Cornet and Scot L. Stride. At the SETI League's annual banquet, these two co-authors each received a plaque and half of the $500.

The other Best Ideas Award recognized a book by British physicist Stephen Webb called "If the universe is teeming with aliens, where is everybody?". This year the editors also awarded Honorable Mentions (a plaque plus $200) to John R. Rice for his paper "ET: Come and Gone Unnoticed?", to historian Stephen Dick for his keynote address "The Post-Biological Universe" at last year's SETICon02 Symposium, and to Chandra Wickramasinghe for his paper on panspermia published last year in SearchLites, the quarterly journal of The SETI League, Inc. Several of these papers are available free on the Contact in Context website: cic.setileague.org, and others are summarized in the SETI Bookshelf column found on that site.

Nominations and self-nominations for the 2004 Best Ideas Awards are welcomed. Send them to Dr. Robert A. Lodder (CIC Editor-in-Chief) at lodder @ uky.edu and to Dr. Allen Tough (CIC Editor) at tough77 @ ieti.org.

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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