Philip Morrison is institute Professor, Emeritus and Professor of Physics, Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He earned his B.S. in 1936 at the Carnegie Institute of Technology and in 1940 he earned his Ph.D. in theoretical physics at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1942 he joined the Manhattan Project as group leader and physicist at the laboratories of the University of Chicago and Los Alamos. He was also an eye witness to the Trinity test. Morrison joined the physics faculty at Cornell University in 1946 and would move on to MIT in 1965. In 1959, Morrison and Giuseppe Cocconi published a paper proposing the potential of microwaves in the search for interstellar communications, a component of the modern SETI program.

Morrison is also known for his numerous books and televisions programs, including "Powers of Ten" and the PBS series "The Ring of Truth".