Frank Donald Drake (born 1930), US astrophysicist. Drake is most famous for devising the 'Drake Equation', a theoretical attempt to estimate the number of extraterrestrial civilizations in our galaxy. In 1960, he conducted the first radio search for extraterrestrial intelligence, known as Project Ozma. He was professor of astronomy at Cornell University (1964-1984) and at the University of California, Santa Cruz (1984-1996). He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1972. Drake was director of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute's Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, holding this position from its founding in 1984 to his retirement in 2010. SETI is an organisation dedicated to finding intelligent radio signals from outer space. Drake worked for the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, West Virginia, USA, from 1958.