Dan Werthimer is co-founder and chief scientist of the SETI@home project and directs other UC Berkeley SETI searches at radio, infrared and visible wavelengths, including the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Radio Emissions from Nearby Developed Intelligent Populations (SERENDIP).

He is also the principal investigator for the worldwide Collaboration for Astronomy Signal Processing and Electronics Research (CASPER).

His father, Jerrold Werthimer, was Professor of Journalism at San Francisco State University for many years.

Werthimer has taught courses at universities in Peru, Egypt, Ghana, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Kenya.

He has published numerous papers in the fields of SETI, radio astronomy, instrumentation and science education; he is co-author of "SETI 2020" and editor of "Astronomical and Biochemical Origins and the Search for Life in the Universe".