Frank Drake and his famous equation
Frank Drake. View of the American astronomer Dr. Frank Drake (1930-). He is demonstrating his 'Drake Equation', an equation which predicts that there are a number of observable civilizations in our galaxy (The Milky Way). In 1960, he conducted the first radio search for extraterrestrial intelligence. He went on to become a professor of astronomy at Cornell University, USA (1964-1984). Drake is now the president of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) institute, an organisation dedicated to finding intelligent radio signals from outer-space. Drake provides SETI with its overall direction of research.