28 Facts About Frank Drake

Frank Donald Drake was an American astrophysicist and astrobiologist.

Frank Drake began his career as a radio astronomer, studying the planets of the Solar System and later pulsars.

Frank Drake developed the Drake equation, which attempts to quantify the number of intelligent lifeforms that could potentially be discovered.

Frank Drake designed and implemented the Arecibo message in 1974, an extraterrestrial radio transmission of astronomical and biological information about Earth.

Frank Drake worked at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Cornell University, University of California at Santa Cruz, and the SETI Institute.

Frank Drake first considered the possibility of life existing on other planets as an eight-year-old, after conjecturing that if human civilization was the result of chance then civilizations might exist elsewhere in the universe.

Frank Drake enrolled at Cornell University on a Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps scholarship.

At NRAO, he conducted research into radio emissions from the planets of the Solar System: using the radio telescope at Green Bank, Frank Drake discovered the ionosphere and magnetosphere of Jupiter, and observed the atmosphere of Venus.

Frank Drake mapped the radio emission from the Galactic Center.

Frank Drake extended the capabilities of the under-construction Arecibo Observatory to allow it to be used for radio astronomy.

However, Frank Drake decided to publicize his project after Giuseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison published a paper in Nature in September 1959, entitled "Searching for Interstellar Communications".

Frank Drake began his Project Ozma observations in 1960, using the NRAO 26-meter radio telescope, by searching for possible signals from the star systems Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani.

In 1961, Frank Drake devised the Frank Drake equation, which attempted to estimate the number of extraterrestrial civilizations that might be detectable in the Milky Way.

The Frank Drake equation has been described as the "second most-famous equation in science", after E=mc.

In 1963, Frank Drake served as section chief of Lunar and Planetary Science at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Frank Drake returned to Cornell in 1964, this time as a member of the faculty, where he would spend the next two decades.

Frank Drake was promoted to Goldwin Smith Professor of Astronomy in 1976.

Frank Drake served as associate director of the Cornell Center for Radiophysics and Space Research, as director of the Arecibo Observatory from 1966 to 1968, and as director of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, from its establishment in 1971 to 1981.

In 1972, Frank Drake co-designed the Pioneer plaque with Carl Sagan and Linda Salzman Sagan.

In 1974, Frank Drake wrote the Arecibo message, the first interstellar message transmitted deliberately from Earth.

Frank Drake later served as technical director, with Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan, in the development of the Voyager Golden Record, an improved version of the Pioneer plaque which incorporated audio recordings.

In 1984, Frank Drake moved to the University of California at Santa Cruz, becoming their Dean of Natural Science.

Frank Drake left his role as dean in 1988, but remained a professor at UCSC while becoming director of the SETI Institute's Carl Sagan Center.

Frank Drake was President of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific from 1988 to 1990.

Frank Drake retired from teaching in 1996 but remained emeritus professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UCSC.

In 2010, Frank Drake stepped down as director of The Carl Sagan Center but continued to serve on the SETI Institute's board of trustees.

Frank Drake had five children, including science journalist Nadia Drake.

Frank Drake died on September 2,2022, at his home in Aptos, California, from natural causes at the age of 92.