Happy Birthday to Frank Drake!

Here at the SETI Institute, we celebrate Frank every day. But today is extra special.

Frank has been part of the SETI Institute since the very beginning. In fact, he was the first President of the Board of Trustees, and he remains active to this day as Chair Emeritus. He is the recipient of many, many awards, including being the first recipient of the SETI Institute’s Drake Award, which is named after him. Frank’s contributions are innumerable, but we have some favorites:

• Project Ozma was the very first SETI experiment, conducted in 1960 at the national Radio Astronomy Observatory at Green Bank, West Virginia.
• The Drake Equation is a probabilistic equation that considers the factors that would play a role in the development of technologically advanced civilizations and today is considered to be a roadmap for astrobiology.
• The Golden Record, included on both Voyager spacecraft, launched 40 years ago and currently traveling in interstellar space, contains sounds and images to communicate the diversity of life and culture on Earth.

Join us in wishing Frank the very happiest of birthdays!