Research

The Tarter Award

for Innovation in the Search for Life Beyond Earth

Dr. Jill Tarter is a true pioneer. Beginning as the only woman in the engineering program at Cornell University and her early, groundbreaking SETI research at UC Berkeley and NASA, Tarter went on to co-found the SETI Institute and to lead some of the most important SETI searches for decades. She led the design, construction and science programs at the SETI Institute’s Allen Telescope Array. Tarter has blazed a path for astronomers and scientists, especially women, who have emerged as the next generations seeking evidence of life beyond Earth. Tarter even inspired Carl Sagan to create the protagonist Ellie Arroway in the novel and film Contact. She continues to encourage new paths, technologies and strategies to help humanity answer the question, “Are we alone?”

The new Tarter Award recognizes individuals who have created projects or ideas that have a significant and innovative impact on humanity’s search for life in the universe. As Tarter incorporated into the SETI Institute’s founding charter, this award will be inclusive; recognizing scientific, technical, educational, philosophical, legal, and ethical contributions to the systematic exploration for extraterrestrial life.

The Tarter Award may be given no more often than once each year.

Nomination period for the second award begins February 1, 2025.

Nomination instructions and submission portal will be posted here once the nomination period begins.

  1. Eligibility: This award is open to any individual(s) whose innovative contributions have had a demonstrated impact on the search for life beyond Earth. Individuals serving on the Selection Committee (see #4) will not be eligible. Generally, a nominee’s contribution or ways of measuring its impact should have been published, at least in part, in refereed journals, or have undergone some equivalent form of review by experts.

  2. Solicitations for nominations (including self-nomination) will be widely distributed each year. A nomination will consist of a letter of no more than 2 pages, outlining the reasons the nominee deserves the award, 2 letters of support by someone other than the nominee, the nominee’s CV, including examples of peer-reviewed publications or the equivalent appropriate to the nominee’s field of work.  A current address and other contact information for both the nominee and the nominator should be clearly specified. The most successful nominations are likely to come from individuals who are familiar with the mission of the SETI Institute and the role of SETI research in promoting a wider perspective on humanity’s future. Nominations will remain eligible for three years after first submission.

  3. All nominations will receive a preliminary review by a group appointed by the SETI Institute CEO, consisting of senior scientists and staff of the Institute.  Inappropriate nominations will be discarded, and remaining nominations will be evaluated by the Tarter Award Selection Committee, described below.

  4. This Selection Committee shall be appointed for renewable three-year terms by the SETI Institute CEO, who will seek the advice of the Institute’s Science Council and/or Science Advisory Board as necessary.  Over time, the committee will consist of an eclectic group of experts with diverse professional and cultural backgrounds.  If the Selection Committee is unable to decide upon an awardee from the submitted nominations, they may solicit and examine additional nominations, or defer the selection of a recipient to the next cycle.

  5. The Selection Committee shall recommend an Awardee(s) to the SETI Institute Board of Trustees, which will make the final determination for the award.

  6. The Award recipient will receive a financial award, recognition on a perpetual award plaque located at the SETI Institute, and an appropriate keepsake award. Travel expenses will be provided for the Award recipient to attend a designated event featuring the Award and its recipient. 

  7. Each winner of the Tarter Award will also be recognized through an international news release issued by the SETI Institute.

  8. The SETI Institute seeks to establish the Tarter Endowment, which will support the expenses of the annual Tarter Award, and, it is hoped, will ultimately grow to provide permanent ongoing support for innovative SETI endeavors at the SETI Institute.

Jim Bildner
CEO of the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, Bildner is also an adjunct lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, and a senior research fellow at the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University. He joined The Kresge Foundation Board of Trustees in 2005.

Andrew Fraknoi
Member of the SETI Institute's Board of Directors and its Science Advisory Board, Andrew Fraknoi retired recently as the Chair of the Astronomy Program at Foothill College. He served as Executive Director of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for 14 years, and is the Lead Author of OpenStax “Astronomy”, the most-frequenly assigned introductory astronomy textbook in North America.

Frank Levinson
General Partner and Managing Director, Small World Group. An American entrepreneur and investor, Levinson is best known for being co-founder of Finisar Corporation.

Sunil Nagaraj
Sunil Nagaraj is the Founder and Managing Partner of Ubiquity Ventures, a seed-stage institutional venture capital firm with almost $200 million under management and a focus on "software beyond the screen" startups. Before Ubiquity, Sunil was with Bessemer Venture Partners, where he led seed rounds for companies like Auth0 (acquired by Okta) and Zapier, and invested in Rocket Lab and Twitch. He previously founded Triangulate, a machine-learning-driven dating startup. Sunil holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Computer Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a Past President of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. He spends his free time playing piano, sailing, and nerding out on new technologies.

Gregory Papadopoulos
Currently a Partner, New Enterprise Associates, Papadopoulos is an American engineer, executive, venture capitalist, and former Chair of the Board of Directors of the SETI Institute. He is the creator and lead proponent for Redshift, a theory on whether technology markets are over or under-served by Moore's Law.