Paul Horowitz | |
|---|---|
 Paul Horowitz (1986) | |
| Born | 1942 (age 83–84) |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Known for | Author, Electrical Engineer, Physicist, SETI |
| Awards | Drake Award (2021)[1] |
| Website | Faculty webpage |
Paul Horowitz (born 1942) is anAmericanphysicist andelectrical engineer, known primarily for his work inelectronics design, as well as for his role in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (seeSETI).
At age 8, Horowitz achieved distinction as the world's youngestamateur radio operator. He went on to study physics atHarvard University (A.B., 1965;A.M., 1967;Ph.D., 1970), where he has also spent all of his subsequent career. His early work was onscanning microscopy (using bothprotons andX-rays). Horowitz has also conducted astrophysical research onpulsars and investigations inbiophysics. His interest in practical electronics has led to a handful of inventions, including an automated voting machine and an acoustic mechanism forlandmine detection, and an electronic Morse Code/Baudot code keyboard using a diode matrix and 66 TTL integrated circuits for Amateur Radio use. Since 1974 he has taught a practical course in electronics whose lecture notes became one of the best known textbooks in the field:The Art of Electronics (coauthored withWinfield Hill and James MacArthur).
Horowitz was one of the pioneers of the search of intelligent life beyond theEarth, and one of the leaders behindSETI. This work has attracted both admiration and criticism. Harvard biologistErnst Mayr has sharply criticized Horowitz for wasting the resources of the university and the efforts ofgraduate students on such an endeavour.Carl Sagan provided a strong rebuttal to Mayr's criticism,[2] and pointed out that many eminent biologists and biochemists had endorsed SETI with the statement:
We are unanimous in our conviction that the only significant test of the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence is an experimental one. No a priori arguments on this subject can be compelling or should be used as a substitute for an observational program. We urge the organizationof a coordinated, worldwide, and systematic search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
— 69 signatories, includingDavid Baltimore,Melvin Calvin,Francis Crick,Manfred Eigen,Thomas Eisner,Stephen Jay Gould,Matthew Meselson,Linus Pauling,David Raup, andE.O. Wilson, Science Magazine[3]
Sagan was believed to have based the main character in his novelContact partly on Horowitz.[4]
Horowitz led theMETA andBETA SETI projects. Horowitz and Sagan reported that, in the course of project META, they had detected 37 signals "which survived all our cuts" and cannot be positively identified.[5]On September 10, 1988 the university's 84-foot radio dish detected "an enormous spike which was 750 times noise. If you converted the radio signal into audio it would sound just like a tone. It would sound like a flute." All 37 signals, however, have been single events which have never been heard again. The software company37signals has been named after these signals.[6]
Horowitz holdsprofessorial appointments at Harvard in bothphysics andelectrical engineering. He has also served as a member of theJASON Defense Advisory Group.
