Eric Korpela

Eric Korpela is a research astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley, He is the director of the SETI@home project, a distributed computing project that was launched in 1999 to use individuals computers to analyze data collected in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). When a radio signal was detected from the vicinity of the star HD 164595 that some interpreted as a possible signal from extraterrestrial intelligence, Korpela was skeptical, noting "there's really nothing about this 'signal' that would distinguish it from a natural radio transient." observing that SETI@home had detected millions of similar signals in the past. He suggested the signal could not be differentiated from signals generated by space-based human technologies, adding "there's also nothing that could distinguish it from a satellite passing through the telescope field of view."

Looking to future best practices for announcing possible detection of extraterrestrial intelligence, Korpela argued that putative detections should be confirmed by another telescope before being reported to the public.

According to Korpela, among the promising targets for future SETI searches are TRAPPIST-1 and Proxima b. E Korpela, D Werthimer, D Anderson, J Cobb, M Lebofsky (2001) SETI@ home—massively distributed computing for SETI. Computing in science & engineering 3 (1), 78-83 According to Google Scholar, this article has been cited 629 times DP Anderson, E Korpela, R Walton. (2005) High performance task distribution for volunteer computing. First International Conference on e-Science and Grid Computing (e-Science'05 ) According to Google Scholar, this article has been cited 241 times

Other topics JEG Peek, C Heiles, KA Douglas, MY Lee, J Grcevich, S Stanimirović, et al . (2011) The GALFA-HI survey: data release 1. The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series 194 (2), 20 According to Google Scholar, this article has been cited 176 times ME Putman, JEG Peek, A Muratov, OY Gnedin, W Hsu, KA Douglas, et al (2009) The disruption and fueling of M33. The Astrophysical Journal 703 (2), 1486 According to Google Scholar, this article has been cited 115 times S Bowyer, TW Berghöfer, EJ Korpela (1999) Extreme-ultraviolet emission in abell 1795, abell 2199, and the coma cluster. The Astrophysical Journal 526 (2), 592 According to Google Scholar, this article has been cited 110 times