Christopher Rose (professor)

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Christopher Rose (born 9 January 1957 ) is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rutgers University in New Jersey. He received a Ph.D from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1985. On September 2, 2004, an article by Christopher Rose and Gregory Wright, titled Inscribed matter as an energy-efficient means of communication with an extraterrestrial civilization, appeared on the cover of Nature with the headline "Dear ET...".

The article showed that wireless communications is an inefficient means for potential communication over interstellar distances owing to both the unavoidable reduction of signal strength as distance squared and that information can be densely encoded (inscribed) in matter. The article also suggested that information-bearing physical artifacts might be a more likely first form of contact with an extraterrestrial civilization than radio signals. Following the publication, Rose and Wright's idea was featured on the BBC World Service and twice on National Public Radio.

He is also an Associate Director of the Wireless Information Network Laboratory at Rutgers and an IEEE Fellow.