About Jill Tarter
Jill Cornell Tarter (born January 16, 1944) is an American astronomer who works on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). Tarter is the former director of the Center for SETI Research, holding the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI at the SETI Institute. In 2002, Discover magazine recognized her as one of the 50 most important women in science. == Early life and education == Tarter grew up in New York State, and graduated from Eastchester High School in 1961. She was elected to its alumni association hall of fame in 2001. Prior to his death when she was twelve years old, Tarter's father was an early inspiration who encouraged her curiosity when she resisted suggestions that she follow pursuits considered more appropriate for a girl and announced that she wanted to be an engineer. On family trips to Florida with her father, she would look up at the dark skies and wonder who or what might be out there. Tarter earned a Bachelor of Engineering Physics degree as an undergraduate at Cornell University (1965) as the only woman in her graduating class of 300 in the engineering college. Her professional interest in astronomy emerged as she pursued a Master's degree (1971) and PhD (1975) at the University of California at Berkeley. In her PhD dissertation, she coined the term "brown dwarf" while researching small-mass objects that fail to stably fuse hydrogen.
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