Daniela de Paulis initiates the idea for “A Sign in Space” while working on a plan for an art project to upload on a satellite.
Shortly after, she presents the concept to the scientific team at the Medicina Radio Observatory and the Sardinia Radio Telescope (Stelio Montebugnoli, Germano Bianchi and Andrea Melis), affiliated with INAF, the Italian Institute for Astrophysics. The Medicina team offers support to Daniela’s concept and plan.
On 3 June 2020, “A Sign in Space” receives the official endorsement of INAF.
On 5 August 2020, Daniela receives the Baruch Blumberg Fellowship in Astrobiology to develop a “Sign in Space” at the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia.
Throughout 2020 Daniela starts networking in the satellite industry, following online seminars and learning about key figures in the field. Finally, in February 2021, Giovanni Sylos Labini of Planetek Italia introduces her to Luca Rossettini, CEO of Italian satellite carrier D-Orbit. Luca Rossettini and his team (Mattia Lanzani and Giorgio Garavaglia) shortly after invite Daniela and the INAF team to upload a simulated extraterrestrial message on one their upcoming launches. Daniela selects the Arecibo message for the test.
On 29 June 2022, Daniela presents the project as part of her talk for the SETI conference “Assembly of the Order of the Octopus”, hosted by The Pennsylvania State University
On 30 June 2021, the D-Orbit ‘ION Scv Dauntless David’ satellite launches into space onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and on 30 July 2021, while orbiting at a distance of approximately 500 km. The satellite transmits the Arecibo message towards Earth from 15:55 to 16:00 CEST.
The Arecibo message transmitted by the D-Orbit satellite, is received by one of the antennas at the Medicina Radio Observatory and by the small, multidirectional Vivaldi antennas at the Sardinia Radio Observatory. This first successful experiment for A Sign in Spaceis reported by a press release issued by Media INAF and D-Orbit.
On 7 July 2022 Daniela presents “A Sign in Space” for SETI Live, as part of an interview with Bettina Forget, director of the SETI Institute Artist in Residency Programme.
On 5 February 2021, thanks to Claudia Mignone, science writer and communicator at INAF, Daniela is introduced to Daniel Scuka, ESA Programme Education Officer. The aim of the meeting is to possibly expand the project through a collaboration with the European Space Agency. Daniel optimistically suggests using the Trace Gas Orbiter, an interplanetary probe orbiting Mars, as a celestial source for the simulated extraterrestrial message. The possibility of using an extraterrestrial source for the signal of the project provides an interesting opportunity for the global SETI researchers community.
In March 2021, Daniel extends the collaboration to retired ESA Spacecraft Operations Manager Paolo Ferri who takes the project further, expanding the scientific team with Tiago Loureiro (ESA Space Operations Engineer), Peter Schmidt (ESA Spacecraft Operations Manager), Olivier Reboud (Mars Express Operation Engineer), Daniel Firre (ESA Ground Operation Engineer), Johannes Bauer (ESA Spacecraft Operations Engineer).
On 27 July 2021 Daniela initiates the monthly meetings with specialists from the fields of SETI, astronomy, astrobiology, philosophy, anthropology, space studies and art. The team of specialists keeps growing over the months, eventually including 28 advisors. The active members of the team are (in order of arrival in the team):
Chelsea Haramia
Claudia Mignone
Jörg Matthias Determann
Bettina Forget
Paola Castaño
Kathryn Denning
Mukesh Bhatt
Jamye Schwartz
John Elliott
Ian Crawford
Klara Anna Capova
Graham Lau
Frank White
Gregory Betts
The monthly meetings help shape the project with the advisors providing some useful feedback and insights into current fields of research related to SETI. The aim of the meetings is also that of generating cutting edge ideas for composing the simulated extraterrestrial signal. As part of the monthly sessions, poet Gregory Betts suggests involving his network in the creative writing community. The monthly sessions end on 2 December 2022.
On 24 March 2022, the project is officially endorsed by the SETI Institute as part of their SETI AiR programme.
On 19 September 2022, Daniela presents “A Sign in Space” as part of the Billingham Cutting Edge Lecture at the International Astronautical Congress in Paris, publishing a paper in collaboration with some of the key scientists.
From 10 October to 9 December 2022, Daniela spends two months at the Green Bank Observatory, where she receives the endorsement of the scientific and outreach staff and telescope time to develop the project using the Green Bank Telescope. During this period, Larry Morgan, scientist at GBO and Steve Croft, astronomy researcher at UC Berkeley, and radio engineer and mathematician Daniel Estévez join the scientific team.
In October 2022 Daniela starts working on the website with scientist and web developer Irene Fabbri.
In November 2022, the team for the outreach and educational activities is formed, meeting twice a month. The team is composed by staff at the SETI Institute, ESA, INAF and GBO, including: Daniel Scuka (Programme Education Officer) Bettina Forget (Director of AiR, SETI Institute), Franck Marchis (planetary astronomer, SETI Institute), Seth Shostak (Senior Astronomer, Science Communicator, SETI Institute), Rebecca McDonald (Director of Communications, SETI Institute), Victoria Catlett (Software Engineer, GBO), Jill Malusky (Public Relations Specialist, GBO), Angela Damery (Public Outreach Manager, GBO), Sarah Olivera (Education and Public Outreach, GBO), Sophie de Saint Georges (Education Specialist, GBO), Claudia Mignone (astrophysicist, science writer and communicator).
The group’s work for the message composition continues through focused weekly meetings starting on 7 December 2022. The group of “simulated extraterrestrials” includes computer scientist and artist Giacomo Miceli, poet Gregory Betts, radio engineer and mathematician Daniel Estévez, physicist and space lawyer Mukesh Bhatt, radio astronomer Roy Smits, astrobiologists Sanjoy Som and Kirt Robinson.
On 14 March 2023, the Medicina Radio Observatory and the Allen Telescope Array take part in the first test, with ESA’s TGO transmitting a message towards Earth. Both observatories successfully receive the signal.
On 3 May 2023, the Green Bank Telescope and the Allen Telescope Array take part in a follow up test, with ESA’s TGO transmitting a message towards Earth. Both observatories successfully receive the signal.
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PROJECT FOUNDER & ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Daniela de Paulis
Daniela de Paulis is a former contemporary dancer and a media artist exhibiting internationally. She is also a member of the IAA SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Permanent Committee and a licensed radio operator. Her artistic practice is informed by Space in its widest meaning. Since 2009 she has been implementing radio technologies and philosophies in her art projects.
She is currently Artist in Residence at the SETI Institute and Artist in Residence at the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia, with the support of the Baruch Blumberg Fellowship in Astrobiology.
In 2009 she developed the Visual Moonbounce technology, in collaboration with international radio operators, and over the past fourteen years she has been creating a series of innovative projects combining radio technologies with live performance art and neuroscience. In addition to her artistic practice, she has published her work with the Leonardo MIT Journal, Routledge, Springer, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and RIXC.
More information: www.danieladepaulis.com, http://somnospace.diejungeakademie.de/, www.cogitoinspace.org, www.opticks.info
Johannes Bauer
Gregory Betts
Gregory Betts is a scholar, editor, and experimental poet with collections published in Canada, the United States, Australia, and Ireland. He is most acknowledged for If Language (2005), a collection of paragraph-length anagrams, and The Others Raisd in Me (2009), 150 poems carved out of Shakespeare’s sonnet 150.
His other books explore conceptual, collaborative, and concrete poetics, thinking about the limits of language and the boundaries of communication. He has lectured and performed internationally, including at the Sorbonne Université, the Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz, the National Library of Ireland, and the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games as part of the "Cultural Olympiad”, amongst many others.
He is a professor of Canadian and Avant-Garde Literature at Brock University, where he has produced two of the most exhaustive academic studies of avant-garde writing in Canada, Avant-Garde Canadian Literature: The Early Manifestations (2013) and Finding Nothing: The VanGardes, 1959-1975 (2020), both published with University of Toronto Press. He has served as the President of the Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English (ACCUTE), the Craig Dobbin Professor of Canadian Studies at University College Dublin, and the Chancellor’s Chair for Research Excellence at Brock University.
He is currently the Curator of the bpNichol.ca Digital Archive and Associate Director of the Social Justice Research Initiative. His most recent books include Foundry (Ireland, 2021), a collection of visual poems inspired by a font named after a 15th century poet, and The Fabulous Op (Ireland, 2022), a collaborative epigenetic romp through the canon with Gary Barwin. He lives in St. Catharines, Ontario.
Listening to Space
by Gregory BettsNew!!Space is supposed to be silent, so it comes as a shock to learn how noisy it is out there.
Mukesh Chiman Bhatt
Mukesh Chiman Bhatt is a trans-disciplinary polymathic autodidact and Chartered Physicist at Birkbeck, University of London.
Researching law and space law from economic, legal, evolutionary and agential perspectives in migrating to and settling outer space with core qualifications and competences in physics, languages, law, computing and translation technologies and the social sciences with invited publications and presentations in a range of related topics including space law, astrobiology, culture, psychology, philosophies, science fiction and defence and aerospace materials.
Other interests include the use of space technologies by the elderly and disabled, the interpretation and philosophy of science in different cultures, dance and exercise. He can be found on academia.edu, Researchgate and LinkedIn.
Germano Bianchi
Eng. Germano Bianchi is working as a researcher at the Radio Astronomy Institute – National Institute for Astro Physics (IRA-INAF).
He is in charge of the Northern Cross radio-telescope, one of the largest transit antennas in the world, located at Medicina. He is currently involved in the technological development of radar architectures for the monitoring of space debris, orbiting objects and for the research of Fast Radio Burst (FRB).
He is also the chair of the Italian Technical Operating Committee of the European SST (Space Surveillance and Tracking) Consortium. For about twenty years it has also supported the development of processing systems dedicated to the detection of SETI signals.
Currently his list of publications includes over 80 proceedings and articles presented at congresses or published in international journals.
Nicole Caplin
Klara Anna Capova
Klara is a socio-cultural anthropologist specialised in Science and Technology Studies (space anthropology), primarily interested in the societal context of space sciences and technologies and social impacts they have.
This includes cultural, environmental and public dimensions of space exploration and in particular transformations of human relations to outer space; search for life beyond Earth; and technological advancement related to space exploration.
More information:
https://klaraannacapova.org
Victoria Catlett
Victoria "Cat" Catlett is a software engineer at the Green Bank Observatory (GBO).
They earned a BS in Physics and a BS in Mathematics from The University of Texas at Dallas in 2022. Now, Cat works on general software maintenance of the Green Bank Telescope (GBT), designing new monitoring algorithms for the GBT, and developing a new Python-based data reduction package for single-dish radio telescopes with astronomers at The University of Maryland.
They also do outreach for The Society of Physics Students (SPS) after having served as the student representative on the SPS Executive Committee during the 2021-2022 school year, and they frequently host scientific programming workshops.
For "A Sign in Space," Cat has been working with the Outreach team to design a livestream event for the signal receipt, and they are putting together a platform to host the signal decoding process.
(Photo credit: NSF/GBO/Jill Malusky)
Pamela Conrad
Pamela Conrad is an astrobiologist and planetary scientist specializing in understanding how planets do or do not evolve into habitable environments, and she is presently involved in the exploration of Mars with the Perseverance Rover in Jezero Crater. She has explored extreme environments all over the Earth including in the high arctic, Antarctica, Death Valley, and the deep sea hydrothermal vents of the Pacific sea floor, to name a few. She is bivocational and in her science endeavors is based at the Earth and Planets Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Science. She is also an Episcopal priest and serves as interim rector at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in Baltimore, MD.
As both clergy and scientist, Conrad offers a unique perspective on exploration, and she is dedicated to encouraging people to engage both critical thinking and faith to explore all of the wonders of both the material and the spiritual universe. Conrad also serves as the Warden for the North American Province of The Society of Ordained Scientists, an international contemplative order that supports the ministry of ordained scientists.
Ian Crawford
Steve Croft
Angela Damery
Angela is the Public Outreach Manager for the Green Bank Observatory.
She has a degree in science communication and has spent the greater part of her career working as an informal science educator.
She also taught seventh-grade math and science in Plymouth, MA.
You can find her out exploring new trails in West Virginia!
Sophie de Saint Georges
Kathryn Denning
Jörg Matthias Determann
Jörg Matthias Determann is Associate Professor of History at Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar. He also serves as an Associate Editor of the Review of Middle East Studies and as Book Review Editor of the Journal of Arabian Studies.
He holds a doctorate from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and two master’s degrees from the University of Vienna. He is the author of four books including Islam, Science Fiction and Extraterrestrial Life and Space Science and the Arab World.
John Elliot
Daniel Estévez
Daniel Estévez holds a BSc in computer science and a BSc, MSc and PhD in mathematics from Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. He currently works as a freelance consultant in spacecraft communications, software defined radio, and other topics.
Formerly he has worked as a GNSS engineer.
He writes a blog about experiments involving amateur radio, space and satellites, is the lead developer of several open-source projects and
collaborates with GNU Radio and SETI Institute.
Irene Fabbri
Irene Fabbri is a developer, designer and digital artist.
She graduated in Physics at the University of Milano Bicocca in 2016, then she obtained a Master's in Science Communication and Journalism at the University of Ferrara. Her master's thesis “Narrative experiments around Fermat's principle. The spread of scientific content through different genres and literary languages” focused on writing literary stories to promulgate scientific concepts and explore the relationship between science and literature.
Irene has done an Erasmus Traineeship at the Bergen Electronic Literature Research Group and she took part in the PostHuman exhibition, curated by the Electronic Literature Organization. Currently, she collaborates with the Research Laboratory of science history and communication "Design of Science - DOS " of the University of Ferrara.
More information:
linkedin.com/in/irene-fabbri
Wael Farah
Wael completed his Bachelors degree at the Lebanese University and Masters degree at the Notre Dame University before moving to Melbourne - Australia to undertake a PhD in Astrophysics where he studied the enigmatic Fast Radio Bursts.
During his PhD at the Swinburne University of Technology, Wael was mainly involved in developing software and analysing data taken using the Molonglo Radio Telescope, the Parkes telescope and ASKAP.
He joined the SETI institute in early 2020 to work on the refurbishment of the Allen Telescope Array.
Paolo Ferri
Daniel Firre
Bettina Forget
Artist in Residence - SETI AIR Program Director
Forget joined the SETI AIR program in 2016 as Researcher in Residence, and has also been responsible for coordinating the program’s archive at the Nevada Museum of Art’s Center for Art + Environment. Bettina is a gallerist, art educator, researcher, and visual artist. Her creative work explores astronomy, science fiction, and feminism, and she has exhibited her projects in both artistic and scientific institutions. In her role as professor, Ph.D. candidate, and Public Scholar at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, she examines the re-contextualization of art and science, and how trans-disciplinary education may disrupt gender stereotypes. Dovetailing with her artistic and academic pursuits, Forget owns and runs Visual Voice Gallery, which presents exhibitions that create a dialogue between art and science.
More information:
www.bettinaforget.com
Giorgio Garavaglia
Giorgio Garavaglia is a senior telecommunications engineer at D-Orbit, specialized in optical and radio transmission. He is responsible for onboard and ground telecommunications systems, and for downlink and data management.
His professional career includes five years at Magneti Marelli Motorsport, working on systems for transmission of telemetry and video for formula one racing cars. His experience in the automotive industry allowed him to introduce innovative methods and techniques to streamline telecommunications hardware and procedures at D-Orbit.
Giorgio holds a master’s degree in telecommunications engineering from Politecnico di Milano. In his free time he plays the bass guitar, and experiments with sound by building his own amplifiers and effect pedals.
Chelsea Haramia
Chelsea Haramia is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Spring Hill College and a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bonn, Germany.
She is the author of several articles and book chapters on space ethics and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and she is currently conducting research for a collaborative project between the Universities of Bonn and Cambridge titled Desirable Digitalisation: Rethinking AI for Just and Sustainable Futures.
Beth Johnson
Beth Johnson is a communications specialist and social media manager for both the SETI Institute and the Planetary Science Institute. She is one of the hosts of the SETI Institute's weekly SETI Live show and monthly SETI Talks events, as well as the science interviewer for Escape Velocity Space News, CosmoQuest’s weekly news show on YouTube and in podcast form.
Beth completed her undergraduate work at San Jose State University, earning a degree in physics with an emphasis in astrophysics. She spent the summer of 2013 in an internship via CAMPARE (Cal Poly Pomona) at the SETI Institute, where she worked with Dr. Peter Jenniskens on NASA’s Cameras for Allsky Meteor Surveillance project (CAMS). She analyzed the data for numerous meteor tracks and helped find several new meteor showers. She presented posters on her research at both winter and summer AAS conferences in 2014.
In her personal life, Beth is the wife of a Canadian network engineer/hockey player, the mother of a genderfluid teenager, and the guardian of five cats. She is passionate about science communication and education and can be found on many social media sites as planetarypan. She volunteers for a local astronomy group, assisting them with social media and outreach.
Mattia Lanzani
Mattia Lanzani, Head of Fleet at D-Orbit, is an accomplished professional in the aerospace industry where he plays a pivotal role in overseeing the fleet operations, ensuring the successful execution of missions and the delivery of reliable services to clients.
Prior to his current role, Mattia worked as a project manager for Presuzzi Extrusion and Bosch Rexroth, where he gained valuable experience in managing complex projects and coordinating teams.
Mattia holds a distinguished certification as a registered Project Manager (PMP®) from the Project Management Institute, further demonstrating his commitment to professional excellence. Previously, he earned his bachelor and his master's degree in aerospace engineering from Politecnico di Milano, where he discussed his thesis on "Reel Mechanism Design for Active Debris Removal."
Dr. Graham Lau
Dr. Graham Lau is an astrobiologist and communicator of science. With an academic background spanning biology, chemistry, astrophysics, and geology, Dr. Lau is an expert on how living things effect the environment around them and how we search for alien life beyond the Earth. He's conducted research in the Canadian High Arctic, has done x-ray spectroscopy at three different particle accelerators around the world, and is the Host of the NASA-funded livestream show called “Ask an Astrobiologist”.
Graham currently serves as the Director of Communications and Marketing for the non-profit Blue Marble Space, he's a Research Scientist with the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, and he is also the Director of Logistics for the University Rover Challenge (an undergraduate robotics competition focused on Mars rovers). Graham has given public talks to classrooms and student groups from around the world, has been interviewed on various podcasts, and is known for his inspirational views on our place in the cosmos. Dr. Lau also serves as a meditation instructor and public speaking coach.
William Lempert
William Lempert is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. He has conducted over two years of ethnographic fieldwork since 2006 in the Kimberley region of Northwestern Australia with Indigenous media organizations. Through collaboration on production teams, he aims to understand the stakes of Aboriginal self-representation embedded within the dynamic process of filmmaking.
His research engages tensions between the production of films that vividly imagine hopeful and diverse Indigenous futures, and the broader defunding of Aboriginal communities and organizations.
This ethnographic research informs his current work on how critical engagements with settler-colonial histories and Indigenous futurisms can foster a fundamental reimagining of the current era of outer space colonization.
Tiago Loureiro
Giuseppe Maccaferri
Electronic technician at Medicina VLBI station of INAF- Istitute for RadioAstronomy in Italy since 1984, he is in charge of all interferometrics observations of 32 metres VLBI parabola, combined with systems maintenance and upgrade, antenna calibrations, observing schedules preparation and data analysis.
System-admin and local reference for national research network (GARR), he maintain and upgrade the local network infrastructure.
He worked also as deck electronic engineer on “Allure of the Seas”, biggest Royal Caribbean cruises ship.
Jill Malusky
Franck Marchis
Franck Marchis is a senior planetary astronomer at the Carl Sagan Center of the SETI Institute and Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder at Unistellar.
During his Ph.D. he has traveled around the world for his research and for the sake of exploration.
He is known for astronomical research published in Nature and other high-ranking journals, including discovery of the first triple-asteroid system in 2005 and direct imaging of the first Jupiter-like exoplanet in 2015, and more.
Marchis is also involved in startups focused on science outreach and astronomy, and joined Unistellar as a Chief Scientific Officer and VR2Planets as a scientific advisor in 2017.
Rebecca McDonald
Rebecca joined the SETI Institute in 2017. She oversees all external communications including the website, e-communications, social media, media relations, and marketing collateral. She also heads up the Center for Outreach programs, Big Picture Science and the SETI Talks colloquium series.
Rebecca’s professional experience has included traditional advertising, both marketing- and creatively-driven, web development and e-communications, and nonprofit marketing and communications. She brings the ability to achieve measurable results, with a focus on building brand awareness and engagement through compelling narrative. Most recently she was Communications Director for the National Eczema Association where she successfully doubled membership using digital acquisition and cultivation strategies. Some of her other non-profit work includes the Episcopal Church Foundation, the Albert G. Oliver Program, and Fort Greene PUPS.
Rebecca is new to the Bay Area, having grown up in Massachusetts and working for most of her career in New York. While she sorely misses New York pizza and bagels, she enjoys sweeping views of the water and the night sky from her back porch.
Andrea Melis
I am an electronic engineer and I got a PhD in electronic and computer engineering,
my major skills concern digital signal processing systems for radio astronomy, specifically the ones based on FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Array).
I am the INAF project manager for the design of the digital correlators for the SKA-mid precursor MeerKAT+ as well as for the CHORD (Canadian Hydrogen Observatory and Radio-transient Detector) array.
I am the INAF chair of the SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) project at the three INAF telescopes (SRT, Medicina, Noto) with particular emphasis on the participation of SRT in the Breakthrough Listen Program.
I am professor of "Laboratory of Radio Astronomy" at the Faculty of Physics at the University of Cagliari (Italy).
Giacomo Miceli
Giacomo Miceli is an artist, entrepreneur and computer scientist.
Holding a degree from Sapienza University and a specialization in AI
from Stanford University, Giacomo has always been passionate about the
intersection of technology, creativity, and the limits of the human
experience. As a polyglot who lived in many countries, his love for
languages and cultures has influenced his artistic endeavors.
Giacomo's career is a unique blend of artistic pursuits and startup
ventures, having participated in two startup incubators and navigating
the often chaotic and competitive environment of the "startup circus."
As a new media artist, his work investigates themes of journey,
transformation, and meaning through visual exploration and semantic
amazement. Giacomo's creations are a testament to his affinity for ideas
that eschew the latest trends and his dedication to exploring the depth
of artistic expression.
Giacomo's latest project, "The Infinite Conversation," has captured the
attention of audiences worldwide and gained widespread recognition due
to its thought-provoking concept. Featuring a never-ending generated
conversation between two chatbots representing Werner Herzog and Slavoj
Žižek, the project raises awareness about the potentially dangerous
implications of such technology.
More information:
https://jamez.it, https://infiniteconversation.com
Dr. Claudia Mignone
Claudia Mignone is an astrophysicist and science communicator at INAF, the National Institute for Astrophysics in Rome, where she works on a variety of communication, public engagement and education projects to share cutting-edge astronomy research with a variety of audiences in Italy and beyond.
Prior to that, she worked for 10 years for the European Space Agency in the Netherlands, writing and producing multimedia content to disseminate the scientific results of space missions such as Rosetta, Gaia, Planck and many others.
A key member of the award-winning outreach group that communicated the Rosetta mission, she is one of the authors of the acclaimed cartoon series "Once Upon a Time" about Rosetta and Philae, and also worked as a facilitator of the first ESA-Ars Electronica art-science residency.
She earned a degree in Astronomy at the University of Bologna, a PhD in Astronomy at the University of Heidelberg (Germany) with a thesis in cosmology on the determination of the expansion history of the Universe using different types of astronomical observations and a Master in Science Communication and Journalism at the University of Ferrara.
DR. Stelio Montebugnoli
- Senior Engineer Associate to INAF (National Institute for Astrophysic)
- SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) ADVISOR at the Scientific
- Department of INAF-Rome (Italy)
Degree in electronic and Nuclear engineering. A former engineer in charge of the Medicina (Bologna) station of the Institute of Radioastronomy. He designed an innovative FFT-based spectrometer that allowed the detection of the water maser line emission in the Comet SL-9 E fragment impact zone on Jupiter's high atmosphere (1994).
He led the first SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) observation in Europe using a special spectrometer supplied by Berkeley University.
In 2001 he successfully led his team, in the first intercontinental bistatic radar (NASA Goldstone USA – Medicina Italia) observations of a small size asteroid. He started in Italy the radar tests for Space Debris detection involving the Evpatoria (Ukraine) 70 mt dish (Tx) and the 32 mt Medicina VLBI dish (Rx). Since 2005 (till 2012) joined, as the engineer in charge of the Italian team, the Square Kilometre Array (SKADS) consortium. This was a worldwide group aimed to design a new generation of large international radio telescopes in Australia and South Africa.
Larry Morgan
I am a scientist at Green Bank Observatory, West Virginia, USA, working in radio astronomy. My work primarily involves supporting the use of the Green Bank Telescope for many different research areas, including astrochemistry, SETI and other fields. My personal research focusses on star formation, Galactic molecular clouds and the interstellar medium.
Previously I have worked for the Met Office in the UK as a data assimilation scientist and have held an NSERC fellowship at St. Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia and an NRAO postdoctoral fellowship at Green Bank, WV.
Paolo Musso
Paolo Musso, philosopher of science, is the Director of INCOSMICON (Intelligence in the Cosmic Context), an international research center at the University of Insubria (Italy). He is also visiting professor of Epistemology at the UCSS of Lima and full member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA) and of the SETI Committee, the interdisciplinary study group for the search for extraterrestrial intelligent life at the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA).
In 2008 he was one of the main characters of Calling E.T., the best SETI documentary ever, made by the Dutch Television. In 2012 he was awarded the 2nd prize in a competition of articles organized by the Oxford University. In 2017 he was the Oxford University Fellow to Latin America, where he directed the project Life in the universe: its origin, its nature, its meaning, in collaboration with the Peruvian universities UCSS and UNIFÉ.
He has published more than 110 articles and 12 books.
Sarah Olivera
Olivier Reboud
Scott Rettberg
Scott Rettberg is Director of the Center for Digital Narrative and Professor of Digital Culture at the University of Bergen, Norway.
Rettberg was a co-founder of the Electronic Literature Organization.
He is the author/coauthor of novel-length works of electronic literature, combinatory poetry, and films including The Unknown, Kind of Blue, Implementation, Frequency, The Catastrophe Trilogy, Three Rails Live, Toxi•City, Hearts and Minds: The Interrogations Project and others.
Rettberg is the author of Electronic Literature (Polity, 2019), a comprehensive study of the histories and genres of electronic literature and winner of the N. Katherine Award for Criticism of Electronic Literature
Kirt Robinson
Kirt has a background in organic chemistry and geochemistry and his research interests include the exploration of ocean worlds in our solar system and beyond, investigating possible prebiotic chemical reactions leading to the emergence of life, improving biosignature detection strategies, and developing novel methods for green chemistry.
He conducts specialized hydrothermal organic geochemistry experiments to build predictive thermodynamic and kinetic reaction models, and he analyzes environmental samples to ground-truth those models.
He is currently an Assistant Research Scientist in the Beyond Center at Arizona State University working under the advisement of Hilairy Hartnett and Sara Walker.
Luca Rossettini
Luca Rossettini, PhD, is CEO and founder of D-Orbit.
Luca is a serial entrepreneur, seeking a profitable and sustainable expansion of the humankind in space. In 1998 Luca quit his Airborne Officer career and got a master’s in Aerospace Engineering in Italy (2003). After a year working in a US research lab on nanotechnologies applied to space propellant, he came back to Europe, where, in 2005, he successfully concluded a master’s in Strategic Leadership Towards Sustainability. During his Ph.D. studies in Advanced Space Propulsion – concluded in 2008 with honors – Luca founded IRTA (startup providing advanced vision and slow-motion tracking techniques through proprietary drone technology) and later OLA Film (company providing special effects for the movie industry). In 2006 he co-founded The Natural Step Italia (The Natural Step is an international NGO that helps corporations and communities to pursue their objectives within a strategic sustainability framework), where the idea of applying strategic sustainability concepts to the space sector originated. In 2008 he applied for the European Astronauts Corp among 10,000 candidates. He went through the whole selection and positioned among the first two hundred. Nevertheless, his motivation pushed Luca to find another access to space. In 2009 Luca won a Fulbright scholarship and in 2010 obtained a Certificate in Technology Entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley, California. After an internship position at NASA Ames Research Center, Luca Rossettini went back to Italy and founded D-Orbit, developing solutions for space logistics, transportation, and Space Debris. Luca loves parachute jumping, scuba diving and eats science fiction books.
Expert at the Space Advisory Group of the European Commission, Board member of AIPAS (space SME industrial association), Board member of Confindustria Florence and corresponding member of International Academy of Astronautics (IAA). He is an aerospace engineer with a Ph.D. in advanced space propulsion, awarded with honors by Politecnico di Milano. He holds a Master’s in Strategic Leadership Towards Sustainability and a Certificate in Technology Entrepreneurship from Santa Clara University, California.
In 2008, Rossettini co-founded Imaging and Research Technology Association, where he held the position of President until 2011, when he decided to co-found D-Orbit.
Emanuele Scaramozzino
Emanuele Scaramozzino, FLEET flight operations manager at D-Orbit, is responsible for managing the flight operations team, performing tasks like recruiting, training, and coordination, and leading the technical aspect of D-Orbit’s flight operations segment.
As Flight Lead for several orbital transportation missions, he has been responsible for their designing, developing, and leading operations. He has also contributed to the design, development, and validation of the AOCS system of D-Orbit’s CubeSats Career ION-mk02.
Emanuele holds a master's degree in space engineering and a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from Politecnico di Milano (Italy).
Peter Schmidt
Jayme Schwartz
Jayme "JS" Johnson-Schwartz is a philosopher, musical artist, and human rights advocate.
Her academic research focuses on the ethics of space exploration, especially the intersections of space and environment as well as space and disability. She is author of The Value of Science in Space Exploration (Oxford University Press, 2020) and editor of Reclaiming Space: Progressive and Multicultural Visions of Space Exploration (Oxford University Press, 2023) as well as The Ethics of Space Exploration (Springer, 2016). Johnson-Schwartz records and releases original music as Anyways, So, Concepts!.
Her first album, shed a tear or two, will be released later in 2023, and you can stream her existing releases on most music streaming platforms.
Daniel Scuka
Seth Shostak
Roy Smits
Dr. Roy Smits is a Dutch astronomer, writer and science-communicator. He studied at the Radboud University of Nijmegen in The Netherlands.
He earned his PhD by studying the radio-emission of compact stars called pulsars. Smits continued his research at the University of Manchester and ASTRON, the Dutch institute for radio-astronomy and has been involved in several international astronomy collaborations. His work laid the foundation for pulsar-research with the Square Kilometre Array, a telescope currently under construction in South-Africa and Australia.
Parallel to his research, Smits has always been an active science-communicator, including teaching astronomy at schools utilizing a mobile planetarium and collaborating with many artists. In 2020 Smits wrote his first book on astronomy for the general public. He is currently working on a children's book.
Sanjoy Som
Joseph Tabbi
Joseph Tabbi is an American academic and theorist who relocated to the University of Bergen in 2019.
He has made significant contributions to the field of experimental American fiction in both print and electronic media.
He is the author of Cognitive Fictions (2002) and Postmodern Sublime (1995). He edited The Bloomsbury Handbook of Electronic Literature (2017), and he continues to co-edit the scholarly journal electronic book review (ebr), which he founded in the mid-1990s with digital literary artist Mark Amerika and designwriter Anne Burdick.
In Bergen, he is a Principal Researcher for the e-Lit node in the Center for Digital Narrative.
Frank White
Frank White is an educator, space philosopher, and communications consultant. He has authored or coauthored numerous books on topics ranging from space exploration to climate change to artificial intelligence. His best-known work is The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution.
Frank is also the co-founder and president of the Human Space Program, Inc., a central project to develop a blueprint for conscious space migration and stewardship of the solar ecosystem.
Frank is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and a Rhodes Scholar. He earned his M.Phil. in Politics from Oxford University.
More information:
www.humanspaceprogram.org, frankwhiteauthor.com
Sabine Winters
Sabine Winters is a freelance philosopher of science, with a strong focus on philosophy of space.
Sabine is the founder and director of Future Based, an interdisciplinary philosophy platform through which she organizes meetups and publishes podcasts and articles.
Currently, Sabine is doing research as a philosopher in residence on the role of imagination at ESA ESTEC Advanced Concept Team. Through research and further study, Sabine aims to specialize further in the philosophy of the role of imagination in space science, with the goal of bringing more philosophy to the space industry.
Scientific Imagination is Sabine's ongoing research on the role of imagination in the natural sciences.
ESPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Jake the Rabbit
Jack is a very curious and active bunny. He loves to explore his surroundings, looking for new things to chew on and places to hide.
He is originally from Pocahontas county WV, and was born in June 2019.
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Poet 1
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Jaap Blonk
Jaap Blonk (born 1953 in the Netherlands) is a self-taught composer, vocalist,
poet and visual artist. After unfinished studies in mathematics and musicology
he discovered the power and flexibility of his voice, and set out on a long-term
research of phonetics and the possibilities of the human voice.
At present, he has developed into a specialist in the creation and performance of
sound poetry. He performs and gives lectures and workshops worldwide on a
regular basis.
Blonk’s music has appeared on about 50 CDs. Books with his visual poetry
have been published in several countries.
Christian Bök
Christian Bök (born 1966) is the author of Eunoia (2001), a globally renowned bestseller, which has won Griffin Prize for Poetic Excellence.
Bök is currently working on The Xenotext — a project that requires him to encipher a poem into the genome of a bacterium capable of thriving in unsurvivable environments, lethal to most life on Earth.
Bök has exhibited his artworks at dozens of galleries around the world, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, The Power Plant in Toronto, and the Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York. Bök is a Fellow in the Royal Society of Canada, and he now works, full time, as an artist at his studio in Melbourne.
Natalia Fedorova
Natalia Fedorova is a new media artist, writer, literary scholar and translator. Natalia holds a PhD in literary theory from Herzen State University (St-Petersburg).
She is an author of publications on avant-garde poetry, kinetic poetry, concrete poetry, hyperfiction, literary text generators and video poetry, as well as a curator and creator of VIDEO.txt, videopoetry festival in St- Petersburg. During 2011 – 2012 Natalia was a Fulbright guest researcher at the Trope Tank, MIT Natalia is an author of hyperfiction piece with multiple endings «7», and an interactive novel «Madame Ebaressa and a Butterfly», co-written with Sergeij Kitov, and a number of short prose fragments. In collaboration with Taras Mashtalir she founded Machine Libertine, a media poetry project («Snow Queen», «In Your Voice», «Machine Poetry Manifesto», «Whoever You Are», «Light Duty», «Memory»).
Natalia has been a SPIRE guest researcher with the ELMCIP group at the University of Bergen (Norway) and an editor of e-lit and new media writing column in Rattapallax magazine (NY).
Hamza Karamali
Hamza Karamali has degrees in Computer Engineering and the traditional Islamic sciences.
He is the Founder of Basira Education, where he develops courses and curricula on the intersection of modern science, Islamic theology, and philosophy.
Shoaib Ahmed Malik
Shoaib Ahmed Malik is Assistant Professor in the College of Natural and Health Sciences at Zayed University, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where he has been teaching for seven years.
In addition to his PhD in Chemical Engineering, Dr Malik is currently completing his second PhD in Theology at St Mary’s University. He is the author of Islam and Evolution: Al-Ghazālī and the Modern Evolutionary Paradigm, which was chosen as the best academic book by the International Society for Science and Religion in 2022.
Tracie Morris
Dr. Tracie Morris is a multidisciplinary poet, scholar, professor and performer who has researched and presented work in 35 countries. Her fellowships include WPR Fellow at Harvard University, CPCW Fellow at University of Pennsylvania, Creative Capital Foundation, Asian Cultural Council, and MacDowell, Yaddo and Millay Colonies.
Tracie is a designated Master Artist by the Atlantic Center for the Arts and is a consultant for art and educational non-profit organizations.
She’s a Visiting Professor of the Practice at Brown University and Professor of Poetry at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her most recent book is human/nature poems by Litmus Press.
Jason Nelson
Born in Oklahoma, seasoned in Queensland and live in Norway, Jason Nelson is a creator of wondrous digital poems and fictions, builder of art games and all manner of digital art creatures.
He is an Associate Professor of Digital Art and Writing at the University of Bergen in Norway. Aside from coaxing his students into breaking, playing and morphing their creativity with all manner of technologies, he exhibits widely in galleries and journals, with work featured around the globe at FILE, ACM, LEA, ISEA, SIGGRAPH, ELO and dozens of other acronyms.
There are awards to list (Paris Biennale Media Poetry Prize), organizational boards he frequents (Australia Council Literature Board and the Electronic Literature Organization), and Fellowships he’s adventured into Fulbright Fellowship at the University of Bergen, Moore Fellowship at the National University of Ireland, and numerous other accolades (Webby Award, Digital Writing Prize).
Allison Parrish
Allison Parrish is a computer programmer, poet, and game designer whose teaching and practice address the unusual phenomena that blossom when language and computers meet. She is an Assistant Arts Professor at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.
According to Ars Technica, Allison’s work “delight[s] everyone.” She was named “Best Maker of Poetry Bots” by the Village Voice in 2016, and her zine of computer-generated poems called “Compasses” received an honorary mention in the 2021 Prix Ars Electronica. Allison is the co-creator of the board game Rewordable (Clarkson Potter, 2017) and author of several books, including @Everyword: The Book (Instar, 2015) and Articulations (Counterpath, 2018). Her poetry has recently appeared in BOMB Magazine and Strange Horizons.
Richard Playford
Richard Playford is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Ethics and Religion at Leeds Trinity University. Before that he was a Lecturer in Religious Studies at St Mary's University. He completed a PhD in philosophy at the University of Reading in 2017 where he was employed as a Sessional Lecturer. He also has a master’s in philosophy from the University of Birmingham and a bachelor’s in philosophy with ancient history from the University of Exeter.
Luigi Serafini
Nour Skaf
Nour Skaf recently received her PhD in exoplanet science from Paris Observatory and was based at the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii.
She is a visiting researcher at the University College London. Her PhD work, titled "self-optimization of adaptive optics and characterization of exoplanetary systems", focused on three different projects: the instrumentation development for direct imaging, the study of a circumstellar disk - beta Pictoris, and the atmospheric characterization of transiting exoplanets.
Nour received in 2021 the L'Oréal-UNESCO award for women in science - young talent France category. She is now focusing for a few months on the access to astronomy in emerging countries, before starting a postdoc at UC Santa Cruz.
Rob Wittig
Rob Wittig plays at the crossroads of literature, graphic design and digital culture. He co-founded the legendary IN.S.OMNIA electronic bulletin board with the literary and art group Invisible Seattle.
Rob co-directs Meanwhile… Netprov Studio. meanwhilenetprov.com
His book Netprov: Networked Improvised Literature for the Classroom and Beyond appeared in Fall 0f 2021 from Amherst College Press. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.12387128