Mr. Monte Ross, an electrical engineer, is a pioneer in laser communications (a paper in 1965, a book in 1966, and leader of the team that developed the first space laser communication system) and in the concept of optical SETI. He received a Fellow award from IEEE and another from McDonnell-Douglas, both awards for his work in space laser communications. He is currently president and CEO of a company that produces electronic information systems. He is active in optical SETI, and presented a poster paper at Bioastronomy 99.