CURRICULUM VITAE KENT CULLERS, PH.D. 689 ... - SETI Institute

CURRICULUM VITAE
KENT CULLERS, PH.D.
689 Coleman Avenue SETI Institute
Menlo Park, CA 94025 2035 Landings Drive
H: (650) 328-4331 Mountain View, CA 94043
kent@seti.org W: (650) 960-4559
EDUCATION
1967 National Merit Scholar and Class Valedictorian, Temple City High School,
Temple City, CA.
1970 Received NSF grant for study of weather patterns using Fourier Transforms,
under Dr. J.C. Miller, Pomona College, CA.
1971 Elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Pi Nu Epsilon; graduated with honors, BA in
Physics with minor in Psychology, from Pomona College, Claremont, CA;
received NSF honorable mention.
1971 Entered Physics Ph.D. program at University of California, Berkeley.
1972-73 At University of California at Berkeley, taught undergraduate physics; attained
rank of third among 21 graduate students in Ph.D. Preliminary Physics
Examination; received excellent marks in oral Preliminary Examination in both
classical and quantum mechanics.
1973 Received MA in Physics from University of California at Berkeley.
1973-74 Joined research group of Prof. F. S. Mozer, Space Sciences Laboratory, UCB.
Developed and tested a UHF telemetry system for field use with high altitude
balloons. Was given complete responsibility, from design through manufacture,
for this $250,000 project, which was completed on time and performed to
specifications.
1974-75 Developed the first computer program to simulate performance of an incoherent
backscatter radar. Used this to determine feasibility of flying such a radar on the
Space Shuttle. The feasibility was deemed marginal on the basis of my
theoretical work and on a cost analysis by the Stanford Research Institute, Menlo
Park, CA, which I combined in a set of recommendations.
1975-76 Designed and performed thesis experiment.

1976 Passed Ph.D. Qualifying Examination with concentrations in information theory,
plasma physics, and magnetospheric and ionospheric physics.
1978 Operated radar at Chatanika, Alaska, during a five day international ionospheric
study.
1980 Thesis accepted (Altitude Dependence of the Radar Measured Perpendicular
Electric Field With Evaluation of Statistical Uncertainties and Systematic Errors).
Received Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
5/80 - 11/82 National Research Council Research Associate at NASA-Ames Research Center,
in the SETI R&D Office of the Extraterrestrial Research Division of the Office of
Life Sciences; research in information theory and signal processing; guiding a
team tackling frontier problems arising in Project SETI, the Search for
Extraterrestrial Intelligence.
11/82 - 2/85 Associate Research Scientist under a NASA cooperative agreement to the
Frederic Burk Foundation. During this period developed the first detector for
regularly spaced narrow-band pulses. With the help of other team members,
simulated detection behavior and calculated sensitivity.
2/85 - 1/90 Signal Detection Team Leader for the SETI Institute under a NASA cooperative
agreement. Developed, evaluated and implemented optimized detection
algorithms for slowly drifting CW and regularly spaced narrow-band pulses.
Developed highly sensitive computationally intensive algorithms as well as
slightly less sensitive computationally small algorithms suitable for commercially
available hardware. Developed new calculational methods to optimize
computational speed and memory use and to evaluate sensitivities.
2/90 - 2/94 Signal Detection Subsystem Manager and Mathematician at NASA Ames
Research Center. Supervised the development of hardware and software for
signal detection in NASA’s High Resolution Microwave Survey (HRMS) Project.
Production of this subsystem required mathematical calculation, software
development, system engineering, and system integration skills. From 1993 to
March 1994 led the SETI R&T effort. Managed the upgrading and replication of
all the digital data processing equipment for HRMS. NASA’s HRMS Project was
cancelled by Congress in October 1993, but is still participating in Project
Phoenix, the SETI Institute’s continuation of the Targeted Search portion of
HRMS. Also involved with the Theoretical Astrophysics Branch at NASA Ames.
3/94 - 9/95 Developed techniques for the photometric detection of Earth-sized planets in the
Theoretical Astrophysics Branch at NASA Ames.
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10/95 - 5/96 Acting Director, Project Phoenix
5/96 - 6/99 Project Manager for the SETI Institute’s Project Phoenix.
6/99 - Director, SETI R&D, SETI Institute
ADDITIONAL AREAS OF PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE
Computer languages; FORTRAN, BASIC, PLI, PASCAL, C.
Computer operating systems; RSX-11M, UNIX, OASIS.
National Merit Scholar, 1967
OTHER ACTIVITIES AND AWARDS
North American Rockwell Management Club Scholar, 1967
Phi Beta Kappa, 1971
National Science Foundation Honorable Mention for Scholastic Achievement, 1971
National Federation of the Blind, National winner, Scholarship for graduate achievements in
science and medicine, 1972
Board member, San Francisco Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired
Member AAS
Member of AAAS panel for Handicapped Scientists and Engineers
Chairman, Committee on Opportunities in Science, AAAS
NASA special achievement award, 1992
NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement medal, 1993
Federal Employee of the Year, 1994
Member, Board of Trustees for Sensory Access Foundation, 1998 -
Member, Board of Trustees for Peninsula Center for the Blind & Visually Impaired, 2000 -
PERSONAL DATA
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Birth: El Reno, Oklahoma, 7/21/49
Citizenship: USA
Marital Status: Married, two children.
NONPROFESSIONAL INTERESTS
Chess, Medicine, Music (Piano and Guitar), Ham Radio (WA6TWX since 1961)
PUBLICATIONS
D K. Cullers, M.C. Kelley, and F.S. Mozer, “Parallel and Altitude Dependent Perpendicular
Electric Fields Deduced from Auroral Zone Incoherent Scatter Measurements.” EOS (AGU
Trans.), Vol. 54, No. 11, p. 1173, #SM 17 (Nov. 1973).
D.K. Cullers, F.S. Mozer, C.L. Rino, and V.B. Wickwar, “Simulation of the Statistics of a Signal
Backscattered from an Ionosphere with Uniform Physical Properties.” EOS (AGU Trans.),
Vol. 56, No. 12, p. 1053, #SM 93, (Dec. 1975).
D.K. Cullers and F.S. Mozer, “Feasibility of Coherent and Incoherent Backscatter Experiments
from the AMPS Laboratory.” Report under NASA Contract NAS 8-31346 (1976).
R.H. Holzworth, J.J. Bertheilier, U.V. Fahleson, C.G. Halthammer, P.J. Kellogg, P. Tanskanen,
D.K. Cullers, M.K. Hudson, M.C. Kelley, M. Temerin, and F.S. Mozer, “The Large Scale
Ionospheric Electric Field: Its Variation with Magnetic Activity and Relation to Terrestrial
Kilometric Radiation.” J. Geophys. Res., No. 19, p. 2735 (1977).
D.K. Cullers, “Altitude Dependence of the Radar Measured Perpendicular Electric Field with
Evaluation of Statistical Uncertainties and Systematic Errors.” Thesis, University of California
at Berkeley (May 1980).
D.K. Cullers and S. Rathjen, “Ultimate QSO.” QST (Dec. 1982).
D.K. Cullers, B.M. Oliver, and E.T. Olsen, “Signal Recognition.” Report of the SETI Science
Working Group, Appendix III (1983).
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D.K. Cullers, “Amateur SETI Workshop: Extraterrestrial Signal Detection,” AstroSearch, Vol.
1, No. 1 (March-April 1983).
D.K. Cullers, “Data Averaging and the Normal Curve,” AstroSearch, Vol. 1, No. 2 (May-June
1983).
D.K. Cullers, “Intergalactic Communication or Altruism and the Selfish Gene,” AMSETI
Workshop, AstroSearch, Vol. 1, No. 3 (July-August 1983).
D.K. Cullers, “Software Implementation of Detection Algorithms for the MCSA.” The Search
for Extraterrestrial Life: Recent Developments, International Astronomical Union Symposium
112 (1985).
D.K. Cullers, I.R. Linscott and B.M. Oliver, “Signal Processing in SETI.” Communications of
the ACM, ACM/IEEE-CS Joint Issue, Vol. 28, No. 11 (Nov. 1985).
D.K. Cullers, “Sensitive Detection of Narrowband Pulses.” Acta Astronautica, Vol. 13, No. 1,
pp. 31-37 (1986).
D.K. Cullers and S.R. Deans, “Narrowband Signal Detection in the SETI Field Test.” The
Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, NRAO Workshop Proceedings (1986).
D.K. Cullers, “Three Pulse and Multiple Stage Continuous Wave Detection Algorithms.”
Conference proceedings of the IAU Colloquium 99, Bioastronomoy-The Next Steps, G. Marx,
(ed.) pp. 371-376 (1988).
J.C. Tarter, P.R. Backus, D.K. Cullers, J. Dreher, “A Search for Single Mode Emission from
Saturated Astronomical OH Masers(a).” AAS Bulletin, Vol. 21, No. 4 (1990).
J.C. Tarter, D.K. Cullers, P.R. Backus, S. Gulkis, E.T. Olsen, E. . Jackson, J. Dreher, D.
Werthimer, W. Herrick, and J. Jordan, “An Attempt to Characterize RFI at Arecibo for Future
SETI Observations.” URSI Meeting (Jan. 1990).
D.K. Cullers and W.R. Alschuler, “Chapter Nine: How to Participate in SETI.” First Contact,
Chapter Nine, B. Bova and B. Preiss (eds.), Byron Preiss Visual Publications, Inc., pp. 279-301
(1990).
J.C. Tarter, P.R. Backus, D.K. Cullers, J. Dreher, C. Hlavka, J. Jordan, “Trying to do Science
Using High Spectral Resolution SETI Prototypes.” Lecture Notes in Physics, 390,
Bioastronomy: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life, J. Heidmann and M.J. Klein (eds.).
Poster paper presented at the 3rd Bioastronomy Symposium, in Val Cenis, France (1990).
D.K. Cullers, “SETI Project to Build Largest Search System.” Online (a publication of the Ames
Computer Systems and Research Division), Vol. 12, No. 12 (Dec. 1990).
S.R. Deans and D.K. Cullers, “Tables of Square-Law Signal Detection Statistics for Hann
Spectra with 50% Overlap.” NASA Technical Memorandum #103830, (Sept. 1991).
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S.R. Deans, D.K. Cullers, and R.P. Stauduhar, “Computational Problems and Signal Processing
in SETI.” Maximum Entropy and Bayesian Methods, W. T. Grandy, Jr. and L. H. Schick
(eds.), Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp. 67-75 (1991).
S.R. Deans and D.K. Cullers, “Statistics of Overlapped Processing with Shaped Windows.”
Submitted to IEEE November 1993.
D.K. Cullers, “An Application of One Measure of Search Merit to Optical SETI.” The Search
for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) in the Optical Spectrum, Proceedings Vol. 1867, S.
Kingsley (ed.), SPIE—The International Society for Optical Engineering, Bellingham, pp. 156-
160 (1993).
D.K. Cullers, “A New Method for Determining the Merits of SETI Search Strategies.” Third
Decennial US-USSR Conference of SETI. S. Shostak (ed.), Astronomical Society of the
Pacific Conference Series, Vol. 47, San Francisco, pp. 67-72 (1993).
J.M. Jenkins, L.R. Doyle, and D.K. Cullers, “A Matched Filter Method for Ground-Based Sub-
Noise Detection of Extrasolar Planets in Eclipsing Binaries: Application to CM Draconis.”
Icarus, Vol. 119, p. 244 (1996).
E. Pardo and D.K. Cullers, “Design of the Fast Fourier Transform Board in the SETI Follow Up
Detection Device.” 45th Congress of the IAF, Jerusalem, Israel (Oct. 1994). To be published
in Special Issue of Acta Astronautica. J. Heidmann (ed.) (1996).
D.K. Cullers, “Parallel Processing in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.” Frontier
Science in EEG: Continuous Waveform Nanlysis (EEG Suppl. 45). R.M. Dashiff and D.J.
Vncent (eds.), Elsevier Science B.V., pp. 123-133 (1996).
D.K. Cullers and R. P. Stauduhar, “Follow-Up Detection in Project Phoenix.” Astronomical and
Biochemical Origins and the Search for Life in the Universe, C.B. Cosmovici, S. Bowyer and
D. Werthimer (eds.), Editrice Compositori, Bologna, Italy, pp. 645-651 (1997).
J.W. Dreher and D.K. Cullers, “SETI Figure of Merit.” Astronomical and Biochemical Origins
and the Search for Life in the Universe, C.B. Cosmovici, S. Bowyer and D. Werthimer (eds.),
Editrice Compositori, Bologna, Italy, pp. 711-717 (1997).
J.J. Heine, S.R. Deans, D.K. Cullers, R. Stauduhar, and L.P. Clarke, “Multiresolution Statistical
Analysis of High-Resolution Digital Mammograms.” IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging,
Vol. 16, No. 5, pp. 503-515 (October 1997).
J.J. Heine, S.R. Deans, D.K. Cullers, R. Stauduhar, and L.P. Clarke, “Multiresolution Probability
Analysis of Gray-Scaled Images.” Journal of the Optical Society of America, Vol. 15, No. 5,
pp. 1048-1058 (May 1998).
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D.K. Cullers, Are We Alone in the Cosmos? The Search for Alien Contact in the New
Millennium. Ben Bova and Byron Preiss, eds., pp. 222-225; 240-262, ibooks, New York
(1999).
D.K. Cullers, “Project Phoenix and Beyond.” Bioastronomy '99 - A New Era in Bioastronomy,
Proceedings of a Conference held on the Kohala Coast, Hawaii, 2-6 Aug. 1999, ASP
Conference Series Vol. 213, p. 451-458 (2000).
T. Pierson, J. Billingham, and D.K. Cullers, “SETI 2020 – A Roadmap for the Next Twenty
Years of SETI Research.” Presented at 51 st IAF Congress, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Oct. 2-6,
2000). To be published in special edition of Acta Astronautica.
M-E. Schlumberger and D.K. Cullers, “The SETI Game.” Paper #IAA-010IAA.9.1.11 presented
at the 52 nd IAF Congress, Toulouse, France (Oct. 2001). To be published in special edition of
Acta Astronautica.
R. Ekers, D.K. Cullers, J. Billingham, and L. Scheffer (eds.), SETI 2020, A Roadmap for the
Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, SETI Press, Mountain View (2002).
D.K. Cullers, “Trials of Omni-Directional Sky Survey Telescopes.” Paper #IAC-02-IAA.9.1.05
presented at the World Space Congress, IAA.9.1. Joint Session with COSPAR on SETI I -
New SETI Facilities Enlarge the Search, Houston, Texas (Oct. 2002).
D.K. Cullers, Detection and Decoding of Information-Dense Signals,” in Between Worlds: The
Art and Science of Interstellar Message Composition. D.A. Vakoch (ed.), MIT Press,
Cambridge (in press, Nov. 2003).
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IN PREPARATION
D.K. Cullers, “Going Commercial: Finding the Signal in the Targeted Search,” to be published
in proceedings from the Planetary Society Conference on SETI, Toronto, Canada.
D.K. Cullers and F.S. Mozer, “Deduction of a Lower Bound for the Long-time-average Parallel
Electric Field in the Earth’s Northern Auroral Zone During Magnetically Active Times.”
D.K. Cullers, “One Bit Sampling Theorem and Drifting CW Detection.”
D.K. Cullers, C.L. Rino, and F.S. Mozer, “Statistical Uncertainties of Incoherent Backscatter
Estimates of Densities and Velocities.”
D.K. Cullers and F.S. Mozer, “Spectral Asymmetries Caused by Finite Sample Rates and Their
Implications for Radar Velocity Measurement.”
C.L. Rino and D.K. Cullers, “A Correction to the Derivation of the Covariance of Two Signal
Auto-correlation Functions.”
D.K. Cullers, “One Comparison of Past and Future SETI Searches.”
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