In the United States will create a search center for extraterrestrial intelligence. $ 110 million will be spent on student learning and research

The University of Pennsylvania plans that the Intelligence Center will have its own professorial staff, and graduates

educational programs will receive degrees,which will be quoted in the world. The astronomical community welcomed the creation of the Center and noted that it would provide much-needed support to a discipline that had long suffered from neglect.

“There is really no academic ecosystem forof this area as a whole, ”states astronomer from Pennsylvania Jason Wright, who will be the head of the Intelligence Center. “You cannot work on finding extraterrestrial intelligence if you cannot hire students and research workers.”

Financial support for research into the search for extraterrestrial intelligence has been insufficient since 1993, when the US Congress banned NASA from funding it.

According to Wright, cuts in federalfunding has had a long-term negative impact on research into the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. He could only find five people in the US with PhDs in research related to this field.

"It takes a special type of person to doan area of ​​science that is not funded and has few job opportunities, ”says Wright. The astronomer himself has so far been engaged in research on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence as a hobby, as a sideline of his main work - the study of exoplanets.

Andrew Simon, director of the research centersearching for extraterrestrial intelligence at the University of California at Berkeley, welcomes the efforts of the state of Pennsylvania. “The presence of research on finding extraterrestrial intelligence in an educational program gives a sign of approval in this area, which is very important,” says Simon, one of the five above-mentioned PhDs who never thought they could make a career in this area.