Dr. Douglas Vakoch is the President of METI International, a nonprofit research and educational organization dedicated to innovative programs in Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI), the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), and astrobiology. Prior to founding METI International, for sixteen years Dr. Vakoch worked at the SETI Institute, where he was Director of Interstellar Message Composition.
He completed his BA in Religion at Carleton College, his MA in History and Philosophy of Science at University of Notre Dame, second MA in Psychology at State University of New York at Stony Brook, and his PhD in Clinical Psychology with Quantitative Minor at State University of New York at Stony Brook.
He is the editor of a over twenty books, including “Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (2011), “Psychology of Space Exploration: Contemporary Research in Historical Perspective” (2011), “Astrobiology, History, and Society: Life Beyond Earth and the Impact of Discovery” (2013), “Archaeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication” (2014), “Extraterrestrial Altruism: Evolution and Ethics in the Cosmos” (2014), and “The Drake Equation: Estimating the Prevalence of Extraterrestrial Life through the Ages” (2015).
Dr. Vakoch serves as founding editor of Springer’s Space and Society series, as well as general editor of Lexington Books’ Ecocritical Theory and Practice series. His work has been featured in such publications as the New York Times, Nature, Science, and Der Spiegel, and he has been interviewed on radio and television shows on the BBC, NPR, ABC, The Science Channel, The Discovery Channel, and many others.

Prof. Serpil OPPERMANN is a Professor of Environmental Humanities and the director of Environmental Humanities Center at Cappadocia University. She completed her undergraduate studies in 1980, MA in 1982 and PhD in 1987 at Hacettepe University. Her current research focuses on the Anthropocene and the Blue Humanities.