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SETI League Honors SETI@home Chief Scientist
For more information contact: Dr. H. Paul Shuch, Executive Director Emeritus
(201) 641-1770, or email info_at_setileague_dot_org

San Diego, CA.., 21 February 2010 -- The SETI League, Inc., nonprofit leaders in a global Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, today awarded its highest technical honor to the head of the world's best known distributed computer processing experiment. Dan Werthimer, a respected scientist with the Space Sciences Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, was presented with the League's annual Giordano Bruno Memorial Award at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

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. Since 1999, participants have been able to recycle their unused computing cycles in helping to analyze data collected from radio telescopes in search of signals from other worlds. This unprecedented network of independent volunteers constitutes the world's largest supercomputer. The goal of SETI@home is to sift through the cosmic static in search of patterns indicative of extraterrestrial technology. Werthimer is responsible for various other UC Berkeley SETI searches at radio, infrared and visible wavelengths, including the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Radio Emissions from Nearby Developed Intelligent Populations (SERENDIP). He is also the principal investigator for the worldwide Collaboration for Astronomy Signal Processing and Electronics Research (CASPER).

The Bruno Award honors the memory of Giordano Bruno, the Italian monk burned at the stake in 1600 for postulating a multiplicity of inhabited worlds. It is presented annually by the grassroots SETI League, to a person or persons making significant technical contributions to the art and science of SETI. Werthimer is the seventeenth recipient of the Bruno award since it was established at the 1995 AAAS meeting.

Largely using radio telescopes and optical telescopes, SETI scientists seek to determine whether humankind is alone in the universe. Since Congress terminated NASA's SETI funding in 1993, The SETI League and other scientific groups have privatized the research. Amateur and professional scientists interested in participating in the search for intelligent alien life, and citizens wishing to help support it, should email 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 scientific Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence.

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

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