In which we win an award from the New Frontiers in Astronomy Program.

The New Frontiers in Astronomy and Cosmology program announced its research grant award winners yesterday.

The last, but not least of the Big Questions solicited in the Call for Proposals, was: Are we alone in the universe? Or, are there other life and intelligence beyond the solar system?

There were four awards in this Astrobiology and SETI category, focusing on different approaches in the search for life elsewhere in the Universe.

We got one:

Constraining the Abundance of Kardashev Type II and III Civilizations From Large Area Infrared Surveys

with PI Prof. Jason Wright (Penn State), yours truly, and Prof. Matthew Povich, formerly at Penn State, now at Cal Poly.

This is one of the most fun projects Ive been involved with, and I am really looking forward to working on this over the next couple of years, and hopefully beyond, if we find something

The proposal came together serendipitously when I bumped into Jason in a stairwell at the office. Jason had just been to a seminar on infrared surveys, and I had been thinking about the New Frontiers call for proposals (I was working on another proposal on complexity, which, sadly, did not get selected). Within hours we had put together a pre-proposal and sent it in to New Frontiers. The proposal then made the cut to be invited for a submission of a full proposal. The full proposal was actually really good, in my humble and impartial opinion, and, we got one of the awards. Yay us!

So now what?

Visit link:

New Frontiers in Astronomy: Cosmic Abundance of Kardashevs [Dynamics of Cats]