Jill Tarter & Seth Shostak. View of the American astronomers Jill Tarter (1944-) and Seth Shostak (1943-). Tarter was chosen as director of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) institute's 'Project Phoenix'. This is SETI's largest project. The project involves collecting radio signals from over 1000 sunlike stars. The project aims to see if any of the signals are from intelligent civilisations. Tarter's work as an astronomer has led to her receiving two NASA public service medals. Shostak, SETI's public programs scientist, has published several academic and popular astronomy articles. His book Sharing the Universe was published in 1998.