View source for Frank Drake

{{For|the comic book character|Frank Drake (comics)}} {{For|the 16th Century naval commander|Francis Drake}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name              = Frank Drake
|image             = File:Frank Drake at Cornell, October 2017.jpg
|caption           = Frank Drake, speaking at [[Cornell University]] in 2017
|birth_date        = {{birth date and age|1930|5|28}}
|birth_place       = [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]]
|death_date        = 
|death_place       = 
|residence         = 
|citizenship       = United States of America
|nationality       = American
|ethnicity         = 
|field             = [[Astronomy]]
|work_institutions = 
|alma_mater        = [[Cornell University]]<br/>[[Harvard University]]
|doctoral_advisor  = 
|doctoral_students = 
|known_for         = [[SETI]]<br/>[[Drake equation]]
|influences        = 
|influenced        = 
|prizes            = 
|footnotes         = 
|signature         =
}}

'''Frank Donald Drake''' (born May 28, 1930) is an American [[astronomer]] and [[astrophysicist]]. He is involved in the [[search for extraterrestrial intelligence]], including the founding of [[SETI]],<ref name="Astrobiology"/><ref name="ActaAstronautica"/><ref name="ScienceET"/><ref name="ScienceMessage"/>  mounting the first observational attempts at detecting [[extraterrestrial communications]] in 1960 in [[Project Ozma]], developing the [[Drake equation]], and as the creator of the ''[[Arecibo Message]],'' a digital encoding of an astronomical and biological description of the Earth and its lifeforms for transmission into the cosmos.

==Early life and education==
Born on May 28, 1930, in [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]], as a youth Drake loved electronics and chemistry. He reports that he considered the possibility of [[life existing on other planets]] as an eight-year-old, but never discussed the idea with his family or teachers due to the prevalent religious ideology.

He enrolled at [[Cornell University]] on a [[NROTC|Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps]] scholarship. Once there he began studying astronomy. His ideas about the possibility of [[extraterrestrial life]] were reinforced by a lecture from astrophysicist [[Otto Struve]] in 1951. After college, he served briefly as an electronics officer on the [[heavy cruiser]] [[USS Albany (CA-123)|USS ''Albany'']]. He then went on to graduate school at [[Harvard]] to study [[radio astronomy]].

Drake's hobbies include [[lapidary]] and the cultivation of [[orchid]]s.

==Career==
Although explicitly linked with modern views on the likelihood and detectability of extraterrestrial civilizations, Drake started his career undertaking radio astronomical research at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory ([[NRAO]]) in [[Green Bank, West Virginia]], and later the [[Jet Propulsion Laboratory]]. He conducted key measurements which revealed the presence of a Jovian [[ionosphere]] and [[magnetosphere]].

In the 1960s, Drake spearheaded the conversion of the [[Arecibo Observatory]] to a radio astronomical facility, later updated in 1974 and 1996. As a researcher, Drake was involved in the early work on pulsars. In this period, Drake was a professor at Cornell University and Director of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC)&nbsp;– the formal name for the Arecibo facility. In 1974 he wrote the [[Arecibo message]].<ref name="Arecibo"/>

He is one of the pioneers of the modern field of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence with [[Giuseppe Cocconi]], [[Philip Morrison]], [[Iosif Shklovsky]], and [[Carl Sagan]].

Drake co-designed the [[Pioneer plaque]] with [[Carl Sagan]] in 1972, the first physical message sent into space. The plaque was designed to be understandable by extraterrestrials should they encounter it.  He later supervised the creation of the [[Voyager Golden Record]]. He was elected to the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1974.

Drake is a member of the [[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences]] where he chaired the Board of Physics and Astronomy of the [[National Research Council (United States)|National Research Council]] (1989–92). He also served as President of the [[Astronomical Society of the Pacific]]. He was a Professor of Astronomy at Cornell University (1964–84) and served as the Director of the Arecibo Observatory. He is currently involved in "The Carl Sagan Center for the Study of life in the Universe" at the [[SETI Institute]].<ref>{{cite web | title =SETI Institute Names New Chief Alien Life Hunter
 | publisher = [[Space.com]]| date = | url = http://www.space.com/8597-seti-institute-names-chief-alien-life-hunter.html | accessdate = February 23, 2012}}</ref>

He is Emeritus Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics <ref>[http://www.ucolick.org/~board/faculty/drake.html University of California | Lick observatory www.ucolick.org] retrieved 18:29 23.10.2011</ref> at the [[University of California at Santa Cruz]] where he also served as Dean of Natural Sciences (1984–88).  He serves on the Board of Trustees of the SETI Institute.

==Honors==
[[Drake Planetarium]] at [[Norwood High School (Ohio)|Norwood High School]] in [[Norwood, Ohio]] is named for Drake and linked to [[NASA]].

==In literature==
Professor Drake is a figure in the 2017 novel [[Never Split Tens]] written by one of his former students at [[Cornell University]], [[Les Golden]] of [[Oak Park, Illinois]].  The novel was published by Springer Nature.

==See also==
{{Portal|Astrobiology}}
* [[Lick Observatory]]
* [[The Search for Life: The Drake Equation]]

==References==
{{Reflist|refs=

<ref name="Astrobiology">{{cite journal |vauthors=Stone RP, Wright SA, Drake F, Muñoz M, Treffers R, Werthimer D |title=Lick Observatory [[Optical SETI]]: targeted search and new directions |journal=[[Astrobiology (journal)|Astrobiology]] |volume=5 |issue=5 |pages=604–11 |date=October 2005 |pmid=16225433 |doi=10.1089/ast.2005.5.604 |bibcode=2005AsBio...5..604S}}</ref>

<ref name="ActaAstronautica">{{cite journal |author=Drake F |title=Space missions for SETI |journal=[[Acta Astronautica]] |volume=44 |issue=2–4 |pages=113–5 |year=1999 |pmid=11542286 |doi=10.1016/S0094-5765(99)00036-3|bibcode = 1999AcAau..44..113D }}</ref>

<ref name="ScienceET">{{cite journal |author=Drake F |title=Extraterrestrial Intelligence |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |volume=260 |issue=5107 |pages=474–475 |date=April 1993 |pmid=17830410 |doi=10.1126/science.260.5107.474|bibcode = 1993Sci...260..474D }}</ref>

<ref name="ScienceMessage">{{cite journal |first1=Carl |last1=Sagan | authorlink1=Carl Sagan| first2=Linda Salzman |last2=Sagan | authorlink2=Linda Salzman Sagan| first3=Frank | last3=Drake |title=A Message from Earth |journal=Science |volume=175 |issue=4024 |pages=881–884 |date=February 1972 |pmid=17781060 |doi=10.1126/science.175.4024.881|bibcode = 1972Sci...175..881S }}</ref>

<ref name="Arecibo">{{cite journal |last=David |first=Leonard |title=Putting Our Best Signal Forward |journal=Cosmic Search |volume=2 |issue=3 |pages=2–7 |date=Summer 1980 |url=http://bigear.org/CSMO/HTML/CS07/cs07p02.htm|bibcode = 1980CosSe...2....2D }}</ref>

}}
* [http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/events/2005/lectures/lecture-lifeoutthere.html "Estimating the Chances of Life Out There"]—brief biography for [[astrobiology]] workshop at the [[NASA Ames Research Center]].

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
*<span class="plainlinks">[https://web.archive.org/web/20100411202244/http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/features/online/3384/qa-with-frank-drake "Only a matter of time, says Frank Drake"]</span> A Q&A with Frank Drake about his famous equation and the meaning of SETI, from an interview in February 2010, leading up to the 50th birthday of SETI.
*<span class="plainlinks">{{YouTube|mucWk4zjSBU|"Estimating the Chances of Life Out There"}}</span> A public talk by Frank Drake in the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture Series.
*<span class="plainlinks">[http://www.astronomycast.com/solar-system/episode-23-the-drake-equation/ "The Drake Equation"]</span>—[[Astronomy Cast]] transcript (html), [[Fraser Cain]] and [[Southern Illinois University Edwardsville]] professor, [[Pamela L. Gay|Dr. Pamela Gay]], Monday 12 February 2007. (<span class="plainlinks">[http://www.astronomycast.com/transcripts/AstroCast-070212_transcript.pdf Full pdf transcript]</span>.)

{{University of California, Santa Cruz}}
{{Interstellar messages}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drake, Frank}}
[[Category:1930 births]]
[[Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:American astronomers]]
[[Category:Cornell University alumni]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:Search for extraterrestrial intelligence]]
[[Category:Interstellar messages]]
[[Category:University of California, Santa Cruz faculty]]
[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]
[[Category:Scientists from Chicago]]