Jill Tarter

Jill Cornell Tarter ( born 1944 ) is an American astronomer and current director of the SETI research. She holds the Bernard M. Oliver Chair of the SETI SETI Institute.

Tarter received her college degree from Cornell University in 1975 and her Ph. D. ( Doctorate degree ) in astronomy at the University of California with the work of Interaction of Gas and Galaxies within Galaxy Clusters. She worked on numerous large-scale scientific projects, generally in conjunction in the search for extraterrestrial life with. In her postgraduate studies, she participated in the project SERENDIP which was searching the universe for radio waves. She was 1992 and 1993, project scientist for NASA's High Resolution Microwave Survey (HRMS ) and then director of the Phoenix Project ( a remake of the HRMS) under the auspices of the SETI Institute. In 2002, she designed together with Margaret Turnbull HabCat the catalog, which was a key component in the Project Phoenix.

Tarter has published dozens of extensive technical writings and lectures. These included the issues of extraterrestrial intelligence and the need for adequate scientific training. By working in the field of astrobiology and its success as a female scientist she has received numerous awards, including from Women in Aerospace and NASA. She won the 2001 Telluride Tech Festival Award of Technology. Tarter was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences in 2002.

Tarter's astronomical work is illustrated in Carl Sagan's novel Contact. In the movie the main character Ellie Arroway Contact Jodie Foster is played. Tarter conferred with the actress for months before and even during filming.

The figure Samantha Crowe in Frank Schätzing novel The Swarm is also heavily based on Tarter.