Laurance Doyle

Laurance Doyle
Residence	Mountain View, CA, United States
Education	M.S. San Diego State University (1982) Ph.D. University of Heidelberg (1986)
Occupation	Astrophysicist SETI Institute NASA Ames Research Center

Laurance R. Doyle (born 1953) is an American scientist who received his Ph.D. from the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg. He has worked at the SETI Institute since 1987 where he is a principal investigator and astrophysicist. His main area of study has been the formation and detection of extrasolar planets, but he has also worked on communications theory. In particular he has written on how patterns in animal communication relate to humans with an emphasis on cetaceans.

He grew up on a dairy farm in Cambria, California and therefore, didn't have much access to information about stars. But by reading books at the local library, Doyle was able to develop his knowledge in astronomy, and eventually obtain his Bachelor's and Master's of Science degrees in astronomy from San Diego State University.

His first job was at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as an imaging engineer, where he was in charge of analyzing pictures of Jupiter and Saturn sent from the spacecraft Voyager. He moved to Heidelberg, Germany, to help analyze images of Halley's Comet. He got his doctorate in Astrophysics at the University of Heidelberg.

In May 2005, he appeared on a National Geographic Channel special titled Extraterrestrial. He also appeared in the episode "Will We Survive First Contact," of The Science Channel series titled Morgan Freeman's Through the Wormhole.

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