In 1961 radio astronomer Frank Drake jotted down an equation to tackle the question: Are We Alone? This very simple question is as tantalizingly unanswered today as it was sixty years ago, but the research at the SETI Institute, co-founded by Drake in 1984, continues the quest.  This talk will give an insight into the SETI Institute and the current state of SETI research.

Simon Steel is Senior Director of Education and Outreach at the SETI Institute, located in Silicon Valley, California.  He is a graduate of Sussex University and received his PhD from University College Dublin, where his research focused on star formation in blue compact galaxies.  Simon worked for many years at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and prior to moving to sunny California taught with the Certificate in Astronomy programme at University College London.