04/12/93
CONTACT: Stanford University News Service (650) 723-2558
STANFORD -- Astronomer Carl Sagan will deliver the 12th annual Bunyan Lecture at 3 p.m. on Friday, April 23, at Stanford University's Dinkelspiel Auditorium.
The lecture, sponsored by Stanford's astronomy program, is free and open to the public on a first-come, first-seated basis. The topic of Sagan's lecture will be, "Is There Intelligent Life on Earth?"
At 9:45 a.m. on Saturday, April 24, Sagan will give a second lecture in Terman Auditorium. This lecture will be geared toward a smaller, academic audience. The title of the second lecture is "Human Missions to Mars: Are Any of the Justifications Adequate?" [For information on attending this lecture, contact Bruce Lusignan at (415) 723-3471.]
Sagan is the David Duncan Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences and director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies at Cornell University. He has played a leading role in the Mariner, Viking and Voyager spacecraft expeditions to other planets, for which he received the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement and, twice, the Medal for Distinguished Public Service.
He has served as chairman of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society, as president of the Planetology Section of the American Geophysical Union, and as chairman of the Astronomy Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. For 12 years, he was editor-in-chief of Icarus, the leading professional journal devoted to planetary research. Sagan is co-founder and president of the Planetary Society, a 100,000-member organization that is the largest space-interest group in the world. Sagan also is a distinguished visiting scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology.
Sagan has published more than 600 scientific papers and popular articles, and is author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books, including The Dragons of Eden, Broca's Brain, Comet and the novel Contact. His most recent book, with Ann Druyan, is Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: A Search for Who We Are.
His Emmy- and Peabody-winning television series "Cosmos" was the most widely watched series in the history of public television, and has now been seen by an estimated 500 million people in 60 countries. The accompanying book, also entitled Cosmos, was on the New York Times bestseller list for 70 weeks, and became the best-selling science book ever published in English. Sagan has received the Pulitzer Prize, the Oersted Medal and 18 honorary degrees from American colleges and universities.
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