Dr. Andrew Siemion is an astrophysicist at the University of
California (UC), Berkeley and serves as Director of the UC
Berkeley Center for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI)
Research. He is jointly affiliated with The Netherlands Institute
for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON) and Radboud University,
Nijmegen, Netherlands. Dr. Siemion’s research interests include
studies of time-variable celestial phenomena, astronomical
instrumentation and SETI. Dr. Siemion is one of the leaders of the
“Breakthrough Listen Initiative” – a 10 year, 100 million dollar
effort, sponsored by Yuri Milner’s Breakthrough Prize Foundation,
that is conducting the most sensitive search for advanced
extraterrestrial life in history.
Dr. Siemion was a recipient of the Josephine De Kármán
Fellowship for Undergraduate Studies at UC Berkeley, the UC
Berkeley Dorothea Klumpke Roberts Prize for
outstanding scholarship as an undergraduate major in astrophysics
and the UC Berkeley Mary Elizabeth Uhl Dissertation Prize for his
work on searches for exotic radio phenomena. Dr. Siemion is an
elected member of the International Union of Radio Science, in
which he serves as an Early Career Representative for the
Commission on Radio Astronomy, and the International Academy
of Astronautics' SETI Permanent Committee, in which he serves as
Committee Secretary. Dr. Siemion also serves on
the Science@Cal Advisory Board, Co-Chairs the Cradle of Life
Science Working Group for the forthcoming Square Kilometer
Array telescope and is a member of the Board of Directors of the
Foundation for Investing in Research on SETI Science and
Technology (FIRSST).
Dr. Siemion frequently appears on international television and
radio discussing the search for life beyond on Earth and the
prospects for detection.