The 2002 Bruno Award was presented by executive director H. Paul Shuch (right) to Claudio Maccone of the Centre for Astrodynamics in Turin, in recognition of his technical leadership within the International Academy of Astronautics, and specifically for his efforts to establish a radio observatory on the far side of the Moon. Dr. Maccone is, significantly, the first Italian to win the Bruno award, which was established in 1995 and is dedicated to the memory of Giordano Bruno, the Italian monk burned at the stake in 1600 for postulating the multiplicity of inhabited worlds. See related press release. Claudio Maccone photo

2002

The 2001 Bruno Award was presented by Awards Committee chairman David Ocame (right) to Peter Wright, DJ0BI, founder of the European Radio Astronomy Club. With the help of his wife Angelika Gherke he publishes "The European Bit," an extensive quarterly newsletter, and chaired the first two European Radio Astronomy Congresses in Heppenheim Germany. Peter built the radio telescope which is the basis of the ERAC club station, was the first European participant in The SETI League's Project Argus sky survey, and volunteered to serve as one of The SETI League's first Regional Coordinators. See related press release. SETI League photo

2001

Optical SETI pioneer Stuart Kingsley (left) accepts the 2000 Bruno Award from executive director H. Paul Shuch. Dr. Kingsley, director of the Columbus Optical SETI Observatory, has been a voice in the wilderness for at least the past ten years, his optical observatory among the first to search for laser communications from space. The scientific establishment is only now beginning to embrace OSETI, due in large part to Kingsley's research, publications and conference presentations. See related press release. SETI League photo

2000

SETI League executive director H. Paul Shuch (left) presents the 1999 Bruno award to Noel Cedric Welstead, VK4AYW. Welstead is credited with building the first amateur SETI observatory in Australia (and probably the first such station in the Southern Hemisphere). He volunteered early on to serve as The SETI League's regional coordinator for Eastern Australia. In that capacity he has given numerous radio, TV and newspaper interviews, spoken about SETI at civic organizations, and hosted a SETI League wine-and-cheese reception at the January 1998 "SETI in the 21st Century" Conference at University of Western Sydney, Macarthur. He also most generously hosted The SETI League's executive director, who visited Australia to present an invited paper at that Conference. See related press release. SETI League photo

1999

SETI League secretary Heather Wood presents the 1998 Bruno award to volunteer Regional Coordinators, Ken Chattenton G4KIR (left) and Trevor Unsworth G0ECP. Their English model for local involvement served as the basis for the current SETI League volunteer Field Organization. Ken and Trevor were the first of a network which has now grown to about fifty regional coordinators on six continents, supporting an expanding membership base. The SETI League owes its current international profile in no small part to the vision and energies of these two dedicated volunteers. See related press release. Heather Wood photo

1998

SETI League Software Committee chairman Daniel Boyd Fox, KF9ET (right) receives the 1997 Bruno Award from executive director H. Paul Shuch. Fox, who developed the basic radio telescope block diagram duplicated by dozens of other experimenters around the world, built one of the first amateur SETI listening stations. On December 1, 1996, he received an interesting (though unconfirmed) candidate signal, one of the first detected in the privatized search for other intelligent life in space. His SetiFox computer program, which sifts through the cosmic static for artificial patterns, is widely used by Project Argus participants. See related press release. SETI League photo

1997

The very first Bruno award was presented to D. Kent Cullers, WA6TWX (left) by executive director H. Paul Shuch, at the 1996 American Association for the Advancement of Science SETI dinner in Baltimore MD. Dr. Cullers, who has been blind since birth, believes that no human eyes are any more sensitive than his, when it comes to detecting alien civilizations. But radio receivers and computers, he reasons, have advanced in recent years to a level which makes searching the cosmos for other civilizations finally practical. It was Cullers who developed the signal detection software for both the late NASA SETI program, and the current Project Phoneix targeted search being conducted by the SETI Institute, where he is employed. See related press release. SETI League photo

1996