Frank Donald Drake

Frank Donald Drake was born in Chicago, Illinois. He earned an engineering physics degree from Cornell University and completed his PhD in astronomy at Harvard University under Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin in 1958. He joined the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, West Virginia.

In April 1960, Drake conducted Project Ozma, the world's first modern radio astronomical search for extraterrestrial intelligence, pointing the Green Bank dish at stars Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani. In 1961, to organize the first scientific conference on SETI, he formulated the mathematical "Drake Equation" (N = R* · fp · ne · fl · fi · fc · L), which remains the foundational framework for estimating active, communicative alien civilizations in the Milky Way. As director of the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, Drake broadcast the historic 1974 "Arecibo Message" toward globular cluster M13 and collaborated with Carl Sagan to design the interstellar gold-anodized plaques for Pioneer 10 and 11 and the Golden Record on Voyager 1 and 2.