Rebecca Charbonneau

Rebecca Charbonneau is a historian of astronomy whose research focuses on radio astronomy and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). She holds a PhD in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Cambridge and an MSc in History of Science, Medicine, and Technology from the University of Oxford. Prior to joining AIP, she held postdoctoral positions at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, where she was the first social scientist to be awarded the Jansky Fellowship. Her work explores the intersection of science, military, and diplomacy, focusing on how geopolitical tensions shaped the development of radio astronomy and SETI. Charbonneau has written on numerous topics, including the development of very long baseline interferometry, the Cold War origins of SETI, and the use of colonial rhetoric in the space age. Her first book, Mixed Signals: Alien Communication Across the Iron Curtain, was published in January 2025 and examines the political and scientific history of interstellar communication. Passionate about fostering dialogue between the physical and social sciences, she works to bridge historical analysis with contemporary discussions on space policy, scientific collaboration, and the philosophy of discovery.