Past Recipients - SETI Forward

Jakob Faber

SETI Forward Advisor
Vishal Gajjar

Area of study
Radio Astronomy

How did the SETI Forward award help advance your studies and/or career?
The Berkeley/SETI Forward award has allowed me to attend a number of conferences (NRSM 2021, APS 2021) and present my research conducted with the BSRC at the 237th AAS conference (held virtually in January 2021). It will also allow me to present my current research with the CHIME/FRB collaboration at the upcoming IAU 2022 / FRB 2022 conference in Busan, South Korea.

What have you done since receiving the award?
Since receiving the award, I finished my final year at Oberlin College and accepted a Fulbright fellowship to work with the CHIME/FRB collaboration at McGill University. I also committed to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) to pursue a Ph.D. in Astrophysics.

What advice do you have for undergraduates considering SETI/Astrobiology studies?
Do it! If your experience is anything like mine, you'll grow a lot as a scientist. And, I expect you'll experience a new sense of agency in doing science as you're encouraged to think creatively and move beyond standard methods.

Siddhant Sharma

SETI Forward Advisor
Henderson Cleaves

Area of study
Nonequilibrium Processes for Chemical Origins of Life, Chemical Reaction Networks, Protocellular Self Assembly

How did the SETI Forward award help advance your studies and/or career?
The award opened up a lot of opportunities that were previously not available to me as an international student from India. It brought the required credibility for networking, academic collaboration, and making small strides as an early career researcher in the field, along with the financial backing to attend and present my work at a conference of my choice.

What have you done since receiving the award?
I will be graduating with my undergraduate degree in May 2022. Few notable opportunities arose after the award was a summer fellowship with Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, and a collaboration with Dr Tomasz Zajkowski from Dr Lynn Rothschild’s group at NASA Ames, US. I was also awarded the 2022 Harvard Origins of Life Undergraduate Summer Research Prize to work with Dr Juan Perez Mercader at the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.

What advice do you have for undergraduates considering SETI/Astrobiology studies?
There will be times when you will not be eligible for programs, and there will be other forms of gatekeeping with respect to undergraduate research opportunities, and resources. The way to move forward is by being proactive, creating opportunities even if they don’t exist yet, having a wide network of people who believe in you and would love to see you succeed, and putting in the effort to craft your own unique experiences. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the field, you will always find a use for your skills but at the same time, one has to make an effort to plan their future moves to explore and appreciate the mission of SETI research.

Ellie White

SETI Forward Advisor
Steve Croft

Area of study
Radio astronomy, telescope instrumentation, SETI, citizen science, science communication and outreach

How did the SETI Forward award help advance your studies and/or career?
Receiving the SETI Forward award was a major highlight of my college years, and I believe that it ultimately helped me secure a job with the Green Bank Observatory. In addition to this more tangible outcome, receiving the award – and in particular, getting to participate in the Drake Awards ceremony alongside role models like Jill Tarter and amazing students like Karen Perez and Siddhant Sharma – made such a huge impact on me at a personal level; it was both humbling and extremely inspiring, and the memory is a touchstone that reminds me of just how lucky I am to get to contribute to SETI efforts, even in a small way, and to get to be a part of an amazing worldwide community of people involved in trying to answer big questions about life in the universe.

What have you done since receiving the award?
Since receiving the award, I graduated from Marshall University with a Bachelor of Science in Physics with a minor in Mathematics. I started work as a Scientific Data Analyst with the Green Bank Observatory in February and am working to support the world’s largest fully-steerable radio telescope. As part of my job I will also be assisting with the Breakthrough Listen project, which uses observing time on the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) to search for technosignatures, or signs of intelligent life in space!

What advice do you have for undergraduates considering SETI/Astrobiology studies?
Having caring, engaged mentors is the reason I am where I am today. If you are considering going into SETI or astrobiology, or any field really, it’s crucial to find people who will support you on your path and develop your skills and confidence so that when you get into the workforce or a graduate program, you will have a strong foundation to go back to when facing obstacles.

It’s very important to follow your own path and listen to your own inner voice – in some areas of academia, there can be a lot of external pressures to fit in a certain mold in order to succeed – but the most important thing is to figure out what you personally value and enjoy, and let yourself be steered by that, even if it is unorthodox and leads you down roads you wouldn’t expect. The road less traveled is often the most interesting!

Karen Perez

SETI Forward Advisor
Vishal Gajjar

Area of study
Radio/X-ray Astronomy (transitional MSPs and pulsars in the Galactic Center)

How did the SETI Forward award help advance your studies and/or career?
The Berkeley/SETI Forward award has helped me connect with and share my research and ideas with pioneers in the field. It has propelled me to continue working in the field and encourage others to do the same, and I look forward to the exciting future of SETI in the years to come.

What have you done since receiving the award?
I am currently a Phd Grad Student in Astronomy at Columbia University. My thesis will be composed of two parts: 1) searching for transitional MSPs, and 2) searching for pulsars in the Galactic Center. The latter is a continuation of my work with Breakthrough Listen (BL) from my internship in 2019, and I’ll be continuing to work with my BL mentor Vishal Gajjar.

Besides this, I have also continued searching for technosignatures and am currently working on looking for intelligent life in the Galactic Plane and in the Galactic Center . 

What advice do you have for undergraduates considering SETI/Astrobiology studies?
I would advise them to take as many relevant courses as possible (especially coding like Python), reach out to professors for undergrad research, and apply for summer internships. I suggest starting research as soon as possible, whether that is during the school year, or during the summer. It will help you gain hands-on experience, find your passion, and hone in on useful coding skills. Attending conferences and talks by experts in the field is also a very good way to learn, build academic relationships, and showcase your interest. Additionally, meeting 1-1 with someone who’s work you admire and asking how you can get there is invaluable.

Mark Siebert

Area of study
Astrochemistry, Radio/sub-mm Astronomy, Evolved Stars

How did the SETI Forward award help advance your studies and/or career?
What I learned at the Berkeley SETI Research Center formed the basis of my understanding on radio astronomy and observational data analysis. This was invaluable as I progressed in my career.

What have you done since receiving the award?
I am now a PhD student at the University of Virginia. My research now focuses on studying molecular chemistry in the outflows of evolved AGB stars.

What advice do you have for undergraduates considering SETI/Astrobiology studies?
Don't be afraid to ask questions! Many things in radio astronomy, astrobiology, and data analysis are hard to grasp at first, but all the scientists I know are eager to help with those kinds of things if you ask them.