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WOODRUFF "WOODY" SULLIVAN
Professor Sullivan's interests are in astrobiology, the search for extraterrest rial intelligence (SETI), and the history of astronomy. As Chair of the Steeri ng Group of the UW's Center for Astrobiology and Early Evolution, he is one of the leaders of the UW's interdisciplinary graduate program and related efforts in Astrobiology. For example, together with Professor John Baross (Oceanography) he is editing the first gr aduate-level textbook in Astrobiology, to be published by Cambridge University Press in 2003.
Recent SETI activity has included a collaboration with the Serendip group, usin g the Arecibo 1000-foot dish for an all-sky search for a wide variety of signal modulation at 21 cm. This seti@home proj ect has involved more than 4 million participants on the Web since its launch i n 1999. History of astronomy research emphasizes the twentieth century, in part icular the development of early radio astronomy and of ideas on extraterrestria l life. As an adjunct professor in the History Department, he also teaches hist ory of science.
He is director of Project AstroBio, which sponsors about 60 scientists of all sorts in year-long partnerships with grades 3-12 teachers throughout the Puget Sound region. This began as Project ASTRO/Seattle, which focused on astronomy since 1997, and in 2002 morphed into Project AstroBio, which includes earth, biologym, and astrobiology components.
Other interests include the battle against radio interference and light polluti on; he is active in the Intern ational Dark-Sky Association and its local chapter Dark Skies Northwest. He recently co-edited the volume Preserving the Astronomical Environment (2001), and has almost finished with a much improved version of his "Earth at Night" image and poster. He also studies the relationships between astronomy and other aspects of culture, such as art, literature, religion, and astrology.
Sundials are a special and peculiar passion. He has designed many sundials, one of which (a MarsDial, the first extraterrestrial sundial) landed on Mars in January 2004 as part of the Mars Exploration Rover mission. He is the main instigator of the EarthDial Project, which links sundials with Webcams all around the world. He has been involved in the design of many public sundials (e.g., on our Physics/Astronomy Building), and aims to make the Seattle region the sundial capitol of North America. A Seattle Sundial "Tour" lists details for these and all other dials in this region.
See Also
SETI Symposium
