T minus 10 interview series by space industry leader Dylan Taylor. This episode features Chair Emeritus of the SETI Institute and science industry trailblazer, Dr. Jill Tarter.

1. An interview seires
with Dylan Taylor
T-MINUS 10
JILL TARTER
with

2. T-MINUS 10 INTERVIEW SERIES | Dylan Taylor
Jill Tarter is the Emeritus Chair for SETI Research at the SETI Institute in
Mountain View, California, and serves on its Board of Trustees. Tarter
received Bachelor of Engineering Physics from Cornell University and her
Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of California, Berkeley. She has led
numerous SETI observational programs at radio observatories worldwide
and helped construct and operate the innovative Allen Telescope Array in
Northern CA. Tarter’s work has brought her wide recognition in the
scientific community, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from
Women in Aerospace and two Public Service Medals from NASA. She is a
Fellow of the AAAS and the California Academy of Sciences, on whose
Board of Trustees she served, presiding as President of the Academy until
2017. In 2004 Time Magazine named her one of the Time 100 most influential people in the world and in
2012 one of the Time 25 most influential people in space. Tarter was a Technology, Education, Design
(TED) prize-winner in 2009, and was a recipient of the Silicon Valley Women of Influence 2010 Award.
In 2014 she was chosen as the Jansky Lecturer. Asteroid 74824 Tarter (1999 TJ16) has been named in her
honor, and a biography Making Contact by Sarah Scoles was published in 2017.
ABOUT
JILL TARTER

3. I grew up in Eastchester NY, a commuting town
on the NYCentral railway for New York, New
York. But I was really fortunate to live in an
apartment complex that surrounded a lake
where I learned to swim, canoe, and fish with
my dad. My dad died when I was 12, and that
solidified a discussion that I had had with him
when I was 8. I told him I wanted to be an
engineer, and thereafter there was no other
path for me.
10. WHAT IS YOUR
BACKGROUND, WHERE DID YOU
GROW UP?
T-MINUS 10 INTERVIEW SERIES | Dylan Taylor

4. As a grad student at Cornell, I was fascinated by the ‘moon
room’ in the space sciences laboratory bilding. They were
trying to figure out if the Apollo landers would sink into the
lunar regolith. I also admit that when I was much younger,
walking along the Florida Keys homeland of my
beachcomber aunt and uncle’s realm, I looked at the sky
and wondered whether another creature, on a planet
around another star, was seeing our Sun in its sky and
wondering if life existed here.
9. WHEN DID YOU FIRST BECOME
INTERESTED IN SPACE?
T-MINUS 10 INTERVIEW SERIES | Dylan Taylor

5. 8. WHAT DO YOU THINK THE BIGGEST ISSUE FACING THE
INDUSTRY TODAY?
W E ’ V E L O S T A S T R O N A U T L I V E S , A N D A V I R G I N G A L A C T I C T E S T P I L O T B U T W E
H A V E N ’ T Y E T L O S T L I V E S O F C I V I L I A N S I N P R I V A T E E N T E R P R I S E E F F O R T S . W H E N W E
D O , H O W M U C H R E S I L I E N C Y D O T H E S E I N D U S T R I E S H A V E ? P E O P L E ( B E Y O N D T H E
S U P E R E N T H U S I A S T S ) W I L L N O T G O U N T I L T H E Y A R E R E A S S U R E D T H A T I T I S A S S A F E
A S C O M M E R C I A L A I R P L A N E F L I G H T .
T-MINUS 10 INTERVIEW SERIES | Dylan Taylor

6. 7. WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO DO FOR
FUN?
F O R F U N , I F O L L O W M Y D A U G H T E R , S T E P K I D S , A N D
G R A N D D A U G H T E R O N S O C I A L M E D I A . A N D
W H E N E V E R W E C A N M Y H U S B A N D A N D I L I S T E N T O
L I V E M U S I C – P A R T I C U L A R L Y I N P L A C E S W H E R E W E
C A N D A N C E T H E S A M B A .
T-MINUS 10 INTERVIEW SERIES | Dylan Taylor

7. Not surprising that Contact tops my list. It gets a lot of
things right and may inspire the next generation of
explorers. But I also have to admire The Arrival because of
the concept that if you can write in circles, you have to
understand the future. And 2001, A Space Odyssey, because
I still can’t completely understand it.
6. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE AND WHY?
T-MINUS 10 INTERVIEW SERIES | Dylan Taylor

8. Contact by Sagan
Door Into Summer by Heinlein
All the biographies by Walter
Issacson
5. WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR
FAVORITE BOOKS?
T-MINUS 10 INTERVIEW SERIES | Dylan Taylor

9. 4. WHAT ARE YOU READING NOW?
M I C H E A L M I C H A U D ’ S M O N S T E R S . H E L O O K S A T T H E
P O T E N T I A L P R O B L E M O F U N R E G U L A T E D G E N E T I C
E N G I N E E R I N G , A N D H E ’ S A C O L L E A G U E F R O M B A C K I N
T H E 1 9 8 0 ’ S W H E N W E C O N S T R U C T E D A ‘ P O S T
D E T E C T I O N P R O T O C O L ’ F O R S E T I .
T-MINUS 10 INTERVIEW SERIES | Dylan Taylor

10. 3. WHERE DO YOU SEE THE SPACE INDUSTRY
IN TEN YEARS?
T O T A L L Y D E P E N D S O N W H E T H E R W E P R E S S A H E A D A S N A T I O N
S T A T E S , O R F I N D A W A Y T O C O L L A B O R A T E A S E A R T H L I N G S
T R Y I N G T O S O L V E U N I V E R S A L P R O B L E M S O F
S C A R C I T Y / P L E N T I T U D E I N O U R L O C A L S O L A R N E I G H B O R H O O D .
T-MINUS 10 INTERVIEW SERIES | Dylan Taylor

11. Make partnerships with
multiple nations. What you
do out there may be
narrowly regulated, but
how it impacts all of Earth
in its distribution will be
globally challenging.
2. WHAT WOULD YOU TELL
PEOPLE JUST STARTING
OUT IN THE SPACE
INDUSTRY?
T-MINUS 10 INTERVIEW SERIES | Dylan Taylor

12. Earthling, Scientist, Stubborn
1. WHAT THREE WORDS BEST
DESCRIBE YOU?
T-MINUS 10 INTERVIEW SERIES | Dylan Taylor

13. Have someone to recommend
for an interview? Contact me!
T-MINUS 10 INTERVIEW SERIES
WITH LEADERS OF THE SPACE
INDUSTRY
www.dylantaylor.org