Douglas A. Vakoch ( ; born June 16, 1961) is an American astrobiologist, search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) researcher, psychologist, and president of METI International, a nonprofit research and educational organization devoted to transmitting intentional signals to extraterrestrial civilizations. Vakoch led METI's participation in Sónar Calling GJ 273b, which transmitted a series of interstellar messages to Luyten's Star, located 12.4 light years from Earth. Vakoch advocates ongoing transmission projects, arguing that this does not increase risks of an alien invasion as suggested by British cosmologist Stephen Hawking. He has participated in several SETI observation programs, and after sixteen years at the SETI Institute, where he was director of Interstellar Message Composition, Vakoch founded METI International. He has edited over a dozen books in SETI, astrobiology, the psychology of space exploration, and ecocriticism. He is general editor of two-book series in ecocriticism and in the intersection of space and society. Vakoch has appeared widely on television and radio as a commentator on SETI and astrobiology. He is an emeritus professor of clinical psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS).
Early life and education
Douglas Vakoch grew up in rural Minnesota. He created his first interstellar message as a high school student—a series of two-dimensional pictures that built upon a message transmitted from Arecibo Observatory in 1974. "The issue that really hit me early on, and that has stayed with me, is just the challenge of creating a message that would be understandable," he told The New York Times Magazine. Vakoch earned a bachelor's degree in comparative religion from Carleton College, a master's degree in history and philosophy of science from the University of Notre Dame, and a PhD in psychology from Stony Brook University. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Vanderbilt University before he accepted a position at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California.
Active Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Active SETI) Vakoch argues that in order to make contact, humankind may need to take the initiative in transmitting, a project called active SETI. He has been called "a prominent voice in favor of active SETI," "the most prominent METI [messaging to extraterrestrial intelligence] proponent," and "the man who speaks for Earth." In Discover's ranking of scientists either in favor of or opposed to transmitting, Vakoch was cited as "super pro," at the extreme of those advocating messaging. After sixteen years at the SETI Institute, where he was director of Interstellar Message Composition, Vakoch founded METI (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence), a nonprofit research and educational organization.
Passive SETI
In 2010, Vakoch was one of the leaders of Project Dorothy, a multinational effort launched by Japanese astronomer Shin-ya Narusawa to observe several stars for signals from other civilizations to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Project Ozma, the first modern-day search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). Telling The Washington Post about the Project Dorothy observations, Vakoch said "[w]hat this weekend really does is begin the process of making it possible to track a possible SETI signal around the globe," and he added "[i]f a signal is detected, it has to be confirmed and followed, and now we're setting up a network to do that."
Vakoch contends that it is essential to expand an understanding of SETI beyond the technology needed to search by also re-examining assumptions about the nature of intelligence, which was the motivation for the METI workshop, “The Intelligence of SETI: Cognition and Communication in Extraterrestrial Intelligence,” held in San Juan, Puerto Rico on May 18, 2016. "By studying the variety of intelligence found on Earth," Vakoch said, "we can gain new insights into sending messages to life on other planets." He called for "rethinking what SETI means," saying "what we haven't caught up with is the real understanding of intelligence." Vakoch told the International Business Times that "[i]n this new approach, we're putting the intelligence back into SETI." He argues that the fact that extraterrestrial intelligence may rely on different senses than humans adds to the complexity of interspecies communication.