Carl Sagan (1934-1996) - Dr Sagan, professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences at Cornell University, New York, USA is fondly remembered as the man who brought the universe into our homes and gave science a human face.

A true renaissance man in the age of ultra-specialization, he was admired and scorned for the seemingly limitless scope of his interests. These ranged from the nature of intelligence to the 'Greenhouse effect' to 'Nuclear winter' to life beyond our planet.

He soared in flights of fancy to realms of possibility that thrilled his lay audiences and infuriated his more stolid colleagues. But he also ruthlessly attacked the crackpot notions of pseudo-science with a laser sharp logic.

His greatest passion, a theme that endured from boyhood to his untimely death, was the search for extra-terrestrial life. The message carried to the stars by Pioneer 10, on behalf of our species and our world, was penned by Sagan's hand. The gold disks aboard the Voyager space probes may someday play, to listeners we cannot imagine, a medley by a DJ named Sagan.