In what is being hailed as the first-ever academic chair dedicated to the hunt for alien life forms, the University of California at Berkeley has named William "Jack" Welch the first Watson and Marilyn Alberts Chair in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or SETI.
In addition, Berkeley's Department of Astronomy announced this month that it will give Welch an intriguing new toy with which to carry out his search: a radio-telescope array made of up 500 to 1,000 individual satellite-TV antennas. Once completed, the antenna array will be one of the most powerful radio telescopes in the world and the largest observing facility devoted primarily to SETI.
The former director of Berkeley's Radio Astronomy Laboratory, Welch is perhaps better known as the current vice president of the Mountain View, California-based SETI Institute, an independent organization devoted to seeking out signs of life in outer space.
