Alexander Ollongren | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Alexander Ollongren, by Janus Nuiten | |
| Born | November 9, 1928 |
| Nationality | Dutch |
| Alma mater | Leiden University |
| Spouse | Gunvor Lundgren (m. 1965) |
| Children | 2 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics, physics and astronomy |
| Institutions | |
Jonkheer Alexander Ollongren (born November 9, 1928) is a professor emeritus at Leiden University. He serves on the Advisory Council of METI (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence).
Alexander Ollongren was born on November 9, 1928 on a coffee plantation in Kepahiang, in the southwestern part of Sumatra, Netherlands East Indies. His father, Alexander Ollongren (1901–1989), was born in Kyiv in Kiev Governorate, and was of mixed Finnish and Swedish descent. He was a member of the Finnish noble family Ållongren. His mother, Selma Hedwig Adèle Jaeger (1901–2000), was of Dutch and German heritage. The family moved to Java in early 1932 and lived in Yogyakarta, while the Japanese army occupied the Netherlands East Indies in 1942. In 1945, the family was interned at various Japanese internment camps, most notably Fort van den Bosch in the modern Ngawi Regency. After the war, Ollongren was further educated in Jakarta. The family stayed in Australia for six months in order to recuperate and later moved to the Netherlands where Ollongren decided to enroll in Leiden University.
He married Gunvor Ulla Marie Lundgren, a Swede, in 1965 in Jönköping. Their children are Karin Hildur (Kajsa) Ollongren, a noted liberal politician and government minister, born in 1967, and Peter Gunnar Ollongren, born in 1970.
His education at Leiden University started with undergraduate and graduate studies in mathematics, Hamiltonian mechanics, physics, and astronomy, after which he gained his MSc degree in 1955. After completing his master's degree, he served almost two years in the military. In 1958, he started his doctoral research in galactic astronomy, supervised by Jan H. Oort and Hendrik C. van de Hulst of the Astronomical Department at Leiden. His research topic was the three-dimensional orbital motions of stars in the galaxy. [1] Characterizing orbital stellar motion in a galaxy could not be done analytically, so a number of sample orbits had to be computed using the rudimentary computers of the time. In cooperation with astronomer Ingrid Torgård (1918–2001) of Lund Observatory in Sweden, the then famous and extremely fast electronic computer BESK in Stockholm was programmed to do the necessary computing. The analysis of the problem, together with the computational results and Ollongren's interpretation of them, earned him a PhD degree in astronomy from Leiden University in 1962.
In 1961, the Leiden University Council decided that the university was in need of an institute to operate and manage a fast electronic computer in order to meet computing demands from a wide range of institutions. Thus, the Central Computing Institute was created. A modern, transistorized computer, built by the Dutch company Electrologica, was installed and Ollongren was appointed Acting Director of the Institute. A year later he became Associate Director of the university computer centre. As demands for computing services were increasing in the university, it became evident that the central computing institute would need more powerful computer facilities. After the appointment of Guus Zoutendijk, mathematician, as General Director in 1964, switching to an IBM mainframe was seriously considered and eventually effected. In the wake of the new orientation, Ollongren was granted a leave of absence.[ citation needed ]
After being invited by Dirk Brouwer, for approximately a year and a half, between 1965 and 1967, Ollongren was a postdoctoral visiting research member in celestial mechanics and lecturer in mathematics at the well-known Research Center of Celestial Mechanics at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. While in the United States, he became well acquainted with the programming and use of modern, large-size IBM computing equipment. He then returned to the newly created Department of Applied Mathematics at Leiden University, and in 1968, became a lecturer in numerical mathematics and computer science. A year later, he became an Associate Professor in theoretical computer science, covering aspects of programming languages. In 1971, he was granted another leave of absence, enabling him to accept the position of Visiting Research Member at the IBM Research Laboratory in Vienna, Austria for three months.
In 1980, Ollongren became a Full Professor of computer science at Leiden, specializing in the semantics of programming languages. That same year, he spent a half year sabbatical at the Department of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence of Linköping University in Sweden. Several years later, the computer science section of the department became the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS).
Ollongren retired at the age of 65 years. He became Emeritus Professor of Leiden University in November 1993, delivering the public lecture called Vix Famulis Audenda Parat, including an invited speech by ‘Alan Turing’, which was enacted by George K. Miley, a university astronomer, in the University’s auditorium.
Ollongren is a member of several societies of computer science; astronomy, including the International Astronomical Union; and astronautics.[ citation needed ]
After his retirement, he became interested in the academic debate on the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI), within the International Astronautical Academy. [2] In particular, he wrote several studies in the field of interstellar communication with extraterrestrials. [3] [4] [5] [6] He also developed a new version of Lincos, a universally comprehensible language based on logic for the purpose of communication with extraterrestrial intelligence. [7] [8] [9] [10] His major contribution to this field is his book, Astrolinguistics, was published by Springer in 2013. [11]
| Library resources |
| By Alexander Ollongren |
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Lincos is a constructed language first described in 1960 by Dr. Hans Freudenthal in his book Lincos: Design of a Language for Cosmic Intercourse, Part 1. It is a language designed to be understandable by any possible intelligent extraterrestrial life form, for use in interstellar radio transmissions. Freudenthal considered that such a language should be easily understood by beings not acquainted with any Earthling syntax or language. Lincos was designed to be capable of encapsulating "the whole bulk of our knowledge".
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) is a collective term for scientific searches for intelligent extraterrestrial life, for example, monitoring electromagnetic radiation for signs of transmissions from civilizations on other planets.
The Bussard ramjet is a theoretical method of spacecraft propulsion proposed in 1960 by the physicist Robert W. Bussard, popularized by Poul Anderson's novel Tau Zero, Larry Niven in his Known Space series of books, Vernor Vinge in his Zones of Thought series, and referred to by Carl Sagan in the television series and book Cosmos.
A generation ship, or generation starship, is a hypothetical type of interstellar ark starship that travels at sub-light speed. Since such a ship might require hundreds to thousands of years to reach nearby stars, the original occupants of a generation ship would grow old and die, leaving their descendants to continue traveling.
The communication with extraterrestrial intelligence (CETI) is a branch of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) that focuses on composing and deciphering interstellar messages that theoretically could be understood by another technological civilization. The best-known CETI experiment of its kind was the 1974 Arecibo message composed by Frank Drake.
Stellar engines are a class of hypothetical megastructures used to control the motion of a star system. The concept has been introduced by Badescu and Cathcart. Some variants use this energy to produce thrust, and thus accelerate a star and anything orbiting it in a given direction. The creation of such a system would make its builders a type-II civilization on the Kardashev scale.
A Bracewell probe is a hypothetical concept for an autonomous interstellar space probe dispatched for the express purpose of communication with one or more alien civilizations. It was proposed by Ronald N. Bracewell in a 1960 paper, as an alternative to interstellar radio communication between widely separated civilizations.
Astrolinguistics is a field of linguistics connected with the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI).
The San Marino Scale is a suggested scale for assessing risks associated with deliberate transmissions from Earth aimed to possible extraterrestrial intelligent life. The scale evaluates the significance of transmissions from Earth as a function of signal intensity and information content. The scale was suggested by Iván Almár at a conference in San Marino in 2005. The radio output of Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune is not considered in the model. The San Marino Scale was subsequently adopted by the SETI Permanent Study Group of the International Academy of Astronautics at its 2007 meeting in Hyderabad, India.
H. Paul Shuch is an American scientist and engineer who has coordinated radio amateurs to help in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI).
Active SETI is the attempt to send messages to intelligent extraterrestrial life. Active SETI messages are predominantly sent in the form of radio signals. Physical messages like that of the Pioneer plaque may also be considered an active SETI message. Active SETI is also known as METI. The term METI was coined by Russian scientist Alexander Zaitsev, who proposed a subtle distinction between Active SETI and METI:
The science known as SETI deals with searching for messages from aliens. METI deals with the creation and transmission of messages to aliens. Thus, SETI and METI proponents have quite different perspectives. SETI scientists are in a position to address only the local question “does Active SETI make sense?” In other words, would it be reasonable, for SETI success, to transmit with the object of attracting ETI’s attention? In contrast to Active SETI, METI pursues not a local, but a more global purpose – to overcome the Great Silence in the Universe, bringing to our extraterrestrial neighbors the long-expected annunciation “You are not alone!”
Acta Astronautica is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all fields of physical, engineering, life, and social sciences related to the peaceful scientific exploration of space. The journal is widely known as one of the top aerospace engineering journals. The journal was established in 1955 under the name Astronautica Acta, obtaining its current title in 1974, with volume-numbering simultaneously restarting at 1. The journal is published by Elsevier, sponsored by the International Academy of Astronautics.
Irene Reinhild Agnes Elisabeth Sänger-Bredt was a German engineer, mathematician and physicist. She is co-credited with the design of a proposed intercontinental spaceplane/bomber prior to and during World War II.
The cultural impact of extraterrestrial contact is the corpus of changes to terrestrial science, technology, religion, politics, and ecosystems resulting from contact with an extraterrestrial civilization. This concept is closely related to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), which attempts to locate intelligent life as opposed to analyzing the implications of contact with that life.
The G-Cloud is an interstellar cloud located next to the Local Interstellar Cloud, within the Local Bubble. It is unknown whether the Solar System is embedded in the Local Interstellar Cloud or in the region where the two clouds are interacting, although the Solar System is currently moving towards the G-Cloud. The G-Cloud contains the stars Alpha Centauri and Altair.
The Initiative for Interstellar Studies (i4is) is a UK-registered not-for-profit company, whose objectives are education and research into the challenges of Interstellar Travel. It pioneered small-scale laser sail interstellar probes and missions to interstellar objects. Several of its principals were involved in the 100 Year Starship winning team originated by NASA and DARPA.
Technosignature or technomarker is any measurable property or effect that provides scientific evidence of past or present technology. Technosignatures are analogous to biosignatures, which signal the presence of life, whether intelligent or not. Some authors prefer to exclude radio transmissions from the definition, but such restrictive usage is not widespread. Jill Tarter has proposed that the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) be renamed "the search for technosignatures". Various types of technosignatures, such as radiation leakage from megascale astroengineering installations such as Dyson spheres, the light from an extraterrestrial ecumenopolis, or Shkadov thrusters with the power to alter the orbits of stars around the Galactic Center, may be detectable with hypertelescopes. Some examples of technosignatures are described in Paul Davies's 2010 book The Eerie Silence, although the terms "technosignature" and "technomarker" do not appear in the book.
The RD-843 is a Ukrainian single nozzle liquid propellant rocket engine burning pressure-fed UDMH and nitrogen tetroxide. It is rated for up to 5 restarts, and can gimbal up to 10 degrees in each direction.
Project Lyra is a feasibility study of a mission to interstellar objects such as ʻOumuamua and 2I/Borisov, initiated on 30 October 2017 by the Initiative for Interstellar Studies (i4is). In January 2022, researchers proposed that a spacecraft launched from Earth could catch up to 'Oumuamua in 26 years for further close-up studies.
METI International, known simply as METI, is a non-profit research organization that creates and transmits interstellar messages to attempt to communicate with extraterrestrial civilizations. In July 2015, the papers to form METI were filed by its founder and president, Douglas Vakoch. It is based in San Francisco, California.
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