Speakers:
Penny Boston
Penelope Boston is professor of Cave and Karst Studies at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, and Associate Director of the National Cave and Karst Research Institute. She is an original member of the Case for Mars project, and a veteran of CONTACT with an abiding interest in extremophiles (human and microbial). Her research areas include geomicrobiology and astrobiology in extreme environments, human life support issues offworld, and use of robotics to assist exploration and science. An eventual permanent human presence on Mars is one of the driving passions of her life.
Bill Clancey
William J. Clancey is the Chief Scientist for Human-Centered Computing in the Intelligent Systems Division at NASA Ames. He has led several partnership projects with Johnson Space Center, including automating routine file management between Mission Control Center and the International Space Station. Currently he is developing an air traffic simulation of how aircraft crews handle conflicts of authority between flight controllers and automated systems. Clancey's scientific interests include relating neural, psychological, and social perspectives of cognition; the nature of conceptualization; the cultural evolution of cognition; and the varieties of animal consciousness. Clancey holds a doctorate in computer science from Stanford University. He recently was elected a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. His book Working on Mars (August 2012) examines how the Mars Exploration Rovers have changed the nature of planetary field science.
Kathryn Denning
Kathryn Denning merrily traipses through the terrain of anthropology, archaeology, and philosophy, as she examines metanarratives about Others, and compares ideas about the best ways of knowing Others. Her subjects include: the ancient, aliens, and animals. In recent years her research has focused primarily on anthropological aspects of SETI and astrobiology, though she sometimes wanders off to investigate the undead, mythical beasts, and other such delights. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology, and the Science and Technology Studies Program, at York University in Toronto, where she teaches courses in archaeology and in the anthropology of outer space.
Dennis A. Etler
Dennis A. Etler received his PhD in paleoanthropology from UC Berkeley and currently teaches at Cabrillo and Gavilan Colleges. He has lived and worked in China for many years and has been involved in a number of projects that helped open the door to foreign participation in paleoanthropological and archeological research in China. Projects Dennis helped initiate include: 1) Description and analysis of Early Middle Pleistocene human crania from Yunxian, Hubei, China; 2) Joint Chinese-American study and excavation of early Paleolithic sites in the Nihewan basin of Hebei; 3) Joint Chinese-American study of new fossil hominoid remains from the Yuanmou basin. He continues his study of the fossil record of ape and human evolution in China and has published review articles that have synthesized research on new recently discovered specimens. His current interest is documenting the early dispersal of anatomically modern humans into East Asia many thousands of years prior to the spread of behaviorally modern humans into the region 35,000 years ago.
Gus Frederick
Gus Frederick is a multi-media artist, animator and technical illustrator who lives in Silverton, Oregon with his cat, lots of books and tons of 78rpm phonograph records. He currently works as a Multimedia Specialist for the Oregon Office of Private Health Partnerships. A long-time space enthusiast, he is a two-time recipient of "HiWISH" Mars image requests, and is active in his local community Grange and Historical Society.
Jim Funaro
Jim Funaro is the founder of CONTACT and professor emeritus in anthropology at Cabrillo College, which has honored him with its highest award for teaching excellence. Publications demonstrating his research interests are "Anthropologists as Culture Designers for Offworld Colonies" and "On the Cultural Impact of Extraterrestrial Contact." His personal and professional approach to life combines the sciences and the arts. Besides his graduate degrees in Anthropology, has a BA cum laude in Literature and is a published poet; he won the American Anthropological Association's 1997 prize for poetry with "The Dancing Stones of Callanish."
Roberta Goodman
Roberta Goodman has worked five years in captive dolphin research and 25 years with wild dolphins as a research assistant with Diana Reiss' Project Circe and the Human/Dolphin Foundation (HDF), as research Director for John Lilly's HDF's two dolphins, Joe and Rosie, and as diver for Marine World. Stories of her communication research continue to reach audiences worldwide and have been published in several books and movies.
Albert A. Harrison
Al Harrison received his BA and MA in Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Michigan. In 1967, he joined the faculty of the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Davis, and in 1979 he advanced to Professor. Now Professor Emeritus, he is the author or co- author of approximately 100 papers in a wide range of journals, and his individually and co-authored books include Living Aloft: Human Requirements for Extended Spaceflight (1985), From Antarctica to Outer Space: Life in Isolation and Confinement (1991), After Contact: The Human Response to Extraterrestrial Life (Plenum, 1997) and Spacefaring: The Human Dimension (2001), Starstruck: Cosmic Visions in Science Religion and Folklore (2007) and Civilizations Beyond Earth: Extraterrestrial Life and Society (2011). Al was a member of NASA's Space Human Factors Engineering Science and Technology Working Group and is a member of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Study Group of the International Academy of Astronautics. He joined Contact in 1985 and much of his work has been inspired or informed (or both) by Contact meetings.
Randall Hayes
Randall Hayes teaches an interdisciplinary course in Analytical Reasoning to college freshmn, and an online master's-level course for high school teachers in how to teach evolution, in a user-friendly and accurate way, at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University in Greensboro, NC. The master's course, and his award-wanting podcast on evolution across different systems, VSI, are funded by the National Science Foundation's BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action.
Jeroen Lapré
With a grounding in 11 years of feature film visual effects at Industrial Light and Magic, Jeroen Lapré is currently senior technical director of the Visualization Studio in the California Academy of Sciences. Mr. Lapré is committed to the production of compelling science-based story telling, to inspire the general public about space exploration and colonisation.
Robert McCann
Robert McCann is Group Lead of NASA Ames' Intelligent Spacecraft Interface Systems Laboratory. He holds a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Waterloo and started his career at Ames as a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow. He has conducted research in the areas of human multitasking limitations, testing and evaluation of advanced automation and human-computer interfaces for aircraft surface operations and real-time fault management on next-generation spacecraft, human performance modeling and simulation, and effects of vibration on spacecraft operations. He has over 60 professional publications in these areas, which have been cited in over 700 refereed journal articles. In his spare time, he blogs on scientific and astronomical topics at whabbear.blogspot.com.
Larry Niven
A veteran of first CONTACT (and many others), Larry is one of America's premier science fiction writers. Perhaps his best-known work is Ringworld (1970), which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar and Nebula awards. In addition to these awards, Niven won the Hugo for Best Short story for "Neutron Star" in 1967. Other short stories won the same award in 1972 and 1975. In 1976, he won the Hugo for Best Novelette for "The Borderland of Sol". His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics. He was CONTACT's keynote speaker in 1995. Mr. Niven is not presenting this year but may participate in discussions.
Gerald Nordley
Gerald D. Nordley is an astronautical engineer and author living in Sunnyvale, CA. A retired Air Force officer, he has extensive experience in spacecraft systems operations, engineering, and testing as well as research in advanced spacecraft propulsion. As an author he is a past Hugo and nebula award nominee as well as a four-time winner of the Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact annual "AnLab" reader's poll. His biggest current time sink is armchair amateur astronomy--trying to keep up with extrasolar planet discoveries. He is a longtime CONTACT veteran and currently serves as the organization's treasurer.
Jim Pass
Dr. Pass received a doctorate in sociology from the University of Southern California in 1991. In 2003, he founded the field of astrosociology. The development of astrosociology as a social-scientific academic field continues to move forward on several fronts. This month, the 3rd Symposium on Astrosociology will take place at the University of Maryland as part of the Space Propulsion, Energy International Forum (SPESIF), which replaced the STAIF conference. From 2003 through 2010, progress occurred mostly in the form of presentations at space and social science conferences. In addition, the introduction of astrosociology took place at the AIAA's Space 2005 conference. From that experience, a core group of individuals led by Dr. Pass developed the Astrosociology Working Group, which later became the Astrosociology Subcommittee. By May 2008, enough progress existed to justify the creation of the Astrosociology Research Institute (ARI), a 501(c)(3) charitable organization with a mission to develop astrosociology as an academic field and assist others -- especially students -- to participate through education and research. One of the major goals is to move astrosociology into the classroom. Recently, ARI reached an important first small step toward making astrosociology ubiquitous in education when Dr. Pass taught the first master's level course in astrosociology for the internet-based Kepler Space University in 2010. In May 2011, the respected journal Astropolitics is slated to publish a special issue devoted to astrosociology.
Reed Riner
Reed Riner is Professor of Anthropology at Northern Arizona University, where he regularly teaches courses about the future, and is a founding board member of CONTACT.
Chad Rohrbacher
Chad Rohrbacher teaches English composition at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, NC. He is also a published author specializing mostly in crime fiction (but with a few science fiction stories as well). Chad's stories have appeared in magazines such as Crime Factory, Needle Magazine, Big Pulp, Dark Valentine, and many others.
David Sanborn Scott
David Scott is Vice-President (for the Americas) of the International Association for Hydrogen Energy. He earned his doctorate in mechanical engineering and astronautical sciences from Northwestern University in Chicago.David spent 22 years at the University of Toronto, where he served as chair of Mechanical Engineering and founded the university's Institute for Hydrogen Systems. He chaired the Canadian Advisory Group on Hydrogen Opportunities that produced the seminal report, Hydrogen: National Mission for Canada.
In 1989 he joined the University of Victoria where he established the Institute for Integrated Energy Systems. This institute focuses on fuel cell systems, cryofuel liquefaction, and energy systems analysis. IESVic continues strongly today with more than 60 faculty, graduate students and staff. In 2006, he received the internationally prestigious Jules Verne Award, for "outstanding contributions to hydrogen physics, hydrogen energy, sociology and philosophy."
A year later, the University of Ontario Institute of Technology awarded David an honorary doctor of science, and the Canadian Hydrogen Association made him their inaugural honorary life-time member. In 2010, David was inducted as a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering. And during the spring 2012 convocation, the University of Victoria will confer an honorary doctorate of engineering on David.
He is the author of Smelling Land: The Hydrogen Defense Against Climate Catastrophe (2007). The book's enhanced edition was released in 2008
Michael Shermer
Dr. Michael Shermer is the Founding Publisher of Skeptic magazine and editor of Skeptic.com, a monthly columnist for Scientific American, and an Adjunct Professor at Claremont Graduate University. Dr. Shermer's latest books are The Mind of the Market, on evolutionary economics and The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies. How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths. He also wrote Why Darwin Matters: Evolution and the Case Against Intelligent Design, and he is the author of The Science of Good and Evil and Why People Believe Weird Things.
Dr. Shermer received his B.A. in psychology from Pepperdine University, M.A. in experimental psychology from California State University, Fullerton, and his Ph.D. in the history of science from Claremont Graduate University (1991). He was a college professor for 20 years, and since his creation of Skeptic magazine he has appeared on such shows as The Colbert Report, 20/20, Dateline, Charlie Rose, and Larry King Live (but, proudly, never Jerry Springer!). Dr. Shermer was the co-host and co-producer of the 13-hour Family Channel television series, Exploring the Unknown.
Seth Shostak
Seth Shostak is the Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute, in Mountain View, California. He has an undergraduate degree in physics from Princeton University, and a doctorate in astronomy from the California Institute of Technology. For much of his career, Seth conducted radio astronomy research on galaxies, and has published approximately sixty papers in professional journals.
He has written more than four hundred popular magazine, newspaper and Web articles on various topics in astronomy, technology, film and television. He lectures on astronomy and other subjects at Stanford and other venues in the Bay Area, and for six years was a Distinguished Speaker for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He is also Chair of the International Academy of Astronautics' SETI Permanent Committee. Every week he hosts the SETI Institute's science radio show, "Big Picture Science."
Seth has written, edited and contributed to a half dozen books. His most recent tome is Confessions of an Alien Hunter: A Scientist's Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (National Geographic).
Melanie Swan
Melanie Swan: MBA Principal, MS Futures Group. Melanie Swan is the principal of MS Futures Group, a futurist, hedge fund manager, and founder of citizen science organization DIYgenomics. Her educational background includes an MBA in Finance and Accounting from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA in French and Economics from Georgetown University. She is an instructor at Singularity University. Recent publications include "Citizen Science Genomics as a Model for Crowd-sourced Preventive Medicine Research," "Multigenic Condition Risk Assessment in Direct-to-Consumer Genomic Services," "Engineering Life into Technology," and "Emerging Patient-Driven Health Care Models." Melanie enjoys kick-boxing, independent film, and international travel.
Jill Tarter
Jill Tarter holds the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI Research and is Director of the Center for SETI Research at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. Tarter received her Bachelor of Engineering Physics Degree with Distinction from Cornell University and her Master's Degree and a Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of California, Berkeley. She served as Project Scientist for NASA's SETI program, the High Resolution Microwave Survey, and has conducted numerous observational programs at radio observatories worldwide. Since the termination of funding for NASA's SETI program in 1993, she has served in a leadership role to secure private funding to continue the exploratory science. Currently, she serves on the management board for the Allen Telescope Array, a joint project between the SETI Institute and the UC Berkeley Radio Astronomy Laboratory. When this innovative array of 350 6-m antennas begins operations at the UC's Hat Creek Radio Observatory, it will simultaneously survey the radio universe for known and unexpected sources of astrophysical emissions, and speed up the search for radio emissions from other distant technologies by orders of magnitude.
Tarter's work has brought her wide recognition in the scientific community, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from Women in Aerospace, two Public Service Medals from NASA, Chabot Observatory's Person of the Year award (1997), Women of Achievement Award in the Science and Technology category by the Women's Fund and the San Jose Mercury News (1998), and the Tesla Award of Technology at the Telluride Tech Festival (2001). She was elected an AAAS Fellow in 2002 and a California Academy of Sciences Fellow in 2003. In 2004 Time Magazine named her one of the Time 100 most influential people in the world, and in 2005 Tarter was awarded the Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization at Wonderfest, the biannual San Francisco Bay Area Festival of Science.
Tarter is deeply involved in the education of future citizens and scientists. In addition to her scientific leadership at NASA and SETI Institute, Tarter has been the Principal Investigator for two curriculum development projects funded by NSF, NASA, and others. The first, the Life in the Universe series, created 6 science teaching guides for grades 3-9 (published 1994-96). Her second project, Voyages Through Time, is an integrated high school science curriculum on the fundamental theme of evolution in six modules: Cosmic Evolution, Planetary Evolution, Origin of Life, Evolution of Life, Hominid Evolution and Evolution of Technology (published 2003). Tarter is a frequent speaker for science teacher meetings and at museums and science centers, bringing her commitment to science and education to both teachers and the public. Many people are now familiar with her work as portrayed by Jodie Foster in the movie Contact.
