George V. Coyne, S. J. is the director of the Vatican Observatory. Long before the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) introduced its Ranger and Apollo programs, he studied the lunar surface, and his broadly-based research interests also include the birth of stars. He invented a special technique, known as polarimetry, as a powerful tool for astronomical investigation. He is currently studying cataclysmic variable stars, that is, binary stars where one super-dense star is capturing matter from its companion, and searching for protoplanetary disks in the vicinity of young stars. An abiding and parallel fascination with the interrelationship of science and religion led him to found a series of studies concerning controversies about Galileo, entitled Studi Galileiani, and to organize several conferences around the theme "Scientific Perspectives On Divine Action." A graduate of Fordham University, where he majored in mathematics and earned his licentiate in philosophy, he received his Ph.D. in astronomy from Georgetown University in 1962 and a licentiate in theology from Woodstock College in 1966. Dr. Coyne joined the Vatican Observatory as an astronomer in 1969 and the next year began teaching in the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of the University of Arizona. He was named a senior research fellow at Arizona in 1976 and, in 1977, the director of its Catalina Observatory and associate director of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. He became associate director of the Arizona Observatories in 1978, the same year he was appointed to his Vatican Observatory post, and, in 1979, served as acting director. Dr. Coyne holds honorary degrees from St. Peter's University and Loyola University (Chicago) in the United States, the University of Padua, and the Pontifical Theological Academy of Jagellonian University in Cracow. He has published more than one hundred scientific papers and edited a number of books.

 

Alison Hawthorne Deming is a Professor of Creative Writing in the English Department. She is the author of Science and Other Poems (LSU Press, 1994), selected by Gerald Stern for the Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets. The book was listed among the Washington Post's Favorite Books of 1994 and Bloomsbury Review's Best Poetry books of the past fifteen years. The Monarchs: A Poem Sequence was published by LSU in 1997, and a new poetry collection Genius Loci is forthcoming from LSU. Deming has also published three nonfiction books, Temporary Homelands (Mercury House 1994), The Edges Of The Civilized World (Picador USA 1998) which was a finalist for the PEN Center West Award, and Writing The Sacred Into The Real (Milkweed Editions 2001, Credo Series: Notable American Writers on Nature, Community and the Writer Life); edited Poetry Of The American West: A Columbia Anthology (Columbia University Press, 1996) and co-edited with Lauret E. Savoy The Colors Of Nature: Essays On Culture, Identity And The Natural World (Milkweed 2002). Deming received an MFA from Vermont College in 1983 and had a Wallace Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University in 1987-88. Her poems and essays have appeared in such magazines and anthologies as The Georgia Review, Denver Quarterly, Sierra, Orion, Islands, The Pushcart Prize XVIII: Best Of The Small Presses, The Forgotten Language: Contemporary Poets And Nature, American Nature Writing, Writing It Down For James: Writers On Life And Craft, Verse And Universe: Poems On Science And Mathematics and the Norton Book Of Nature Writing.

 

Paul Ivey is an Associate Professor in Art History. His Ph.D. is from SUNY, Binghampton. Ivey teaches Modern and Contemporary Art, Theory and Criticism. His research interests include Religion in the American Built Environment as well as contemporary theory. He is the author of Prayers in Stone: Christian Science Architecture in the United States 1894-1930 and is a frequent contributor to THE Magazine, Santa Fe, and numerous scholarly articles. He is currently writing a book entitled Called to America: Architectural Manifestations of Eastern Religions in the United States. This work examines early architectural expressions of important Eastern religious groups that began to convert U. S. citizens in earnest during the early twentieth century. The results of this study will allow use to better understand how Eastern religious rituals and their buildings, even early in the century, contributed to the multicultural religious architecture of the United States at a period of important national and institutional definition.

 

Thomas Lindell is a native of Minnesota and received his bachelor's degree in chemistry and biology from Gustavus Adolphus College in 1963. His Ph.D. is from the University of Iowa in Biochemistry. After postdoctoral work at the University of Washington, and the University of California San Francisco, he came to the University of Arizona in 1970. He is now in his 34th year as a professor at the University of Arizona. In that time, he has been a member of the Pharmacology Department at the College of Medicine, and since 1983 he has been affiliated with the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB) on the main campus. He was the first Head (acting) of MCB and in that capacity, over a 4-1/2 tenure, he assisted in the development of new curriculum offerings, paved the way for the hiring of a new Head. He left active bench science in the late 1980's and began another career of teaching bioethics (MCB 404) and scientific ethics for graduate students (MCB 695e). In 1997 he took his first sabbatical and studied theology at the University of Cambridge, UK. Upon his return, he began teaching a course on Science and Theology (MCB 414) that has now been taught for 11 straight semesters. Dr. Lindell received a Templeton Course Award to initiate the above course, and was also the recipient of a three-year Templeton Oxford Seminars award to go to Oxford for one month each summer (1999-2001). Dr. Lindell is a deacon in the Episcopal Church and was inducted into the Society of Ordained Scientists (SOSc) in the UK in July 2003.

 

Jonathan Lunine is Professor of Planetary Sciences and of Physics, and chair of the Theoretical Astrophysics Program at the University of Arizona. He is also a Distinguished Visiting Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he serves as a member of the Director's Advisory Council. His research interests include the evolution of giant planets and brown dwarf stars, the formation of planets, the evolution of Titan's atmosphere and surface processes, and organic chemistry leading to the origin of life. Lunine is an interdisciplinary scientist on the Cassini mission to Saturn and on the James Webb (Next Generation) Space Telescope. He is a co-investigator on a Space Interferometry Mission project to discover young planets, and on a SIRTF team investigating the evolution of planet-forming disks. Dr. Lunine is the author of the book Earth: Evolution of a Habitable World (Cambridge University Press, 1999). He is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and elected member of the International Academy of Astronautics. Dr. Lunine earned a B.S. in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Rochester in 1980, followed by M.S. (1983) and Ph.D (1985) degrees in Planetary Science from the California Institute of Technology.

 

Renu Malhotra is an Associate Professor of Planetary Sciences and faculty member of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. Her research is directed towards understanding planetary systems: their orbital dynamics, and their formation and evolution. She uses mathematical analysis and computer modeling to trace the relationship between observed orbital and physical characteristics of planetary bodies and the (usually unobserved) processes of planetary system formation and long-term dynamical evolution. Current topics of research are: Kuiper Belt dynamics, stability of the Solar system and of extra-solar planetary systems, orbital migration history of giant planets, and dust distribution in circumstellar debris disks. She is an author of over 30 scientific articles, and is the winner of the Harold C. Urey Prize from the American Astronomical Society and the Division for Planetary Sciences in 1997.

 

Alex Nava received his B.A. from the University of Arizona in Microbiology and Chemistry and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of Chicago. Following graduate studies, he was Assistant Professor of Theology at Seattle University from 1997-1999. In the fall of 1999 he joined the department of Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Arizona where he is currently Assistant Professor. His first book, "The Mystical and Prophetic Thought of Simone Weil and Gustavo Gutierrez" (SUNY Press, 2001) is a study of the philosopher of religion Simone Weil and the contemporary Latin American theologian Gustavo Gutierrez. He is currently working on a book project in the area of Religion and Literature.

 

Bill Stoeger, S.J. entered the Society of Jesus in September 1961, and in 1967 completed his bachelor's degree with honors in philosophy, with a strong secondary concentration in physics and mathematics, from Spring Hill College, Mobile, Alabama. In 1969 he was awarded an M. S. in physics from UCLA. After lecturing in the physics department at the University of San Francisco, he began theological studies at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California, where he finished an S. T. M. and was ordained to the priesthood in 1972. He completed a Ph.D. in astrophysics at Cambridge University in 1979. From 1976 to 1979 he was a reseach associate with the theoretical gravitational physics group at the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland. In September 1979 he joined the staff of the Vatican Observatory, where he continues working as staff astrophysicist. Stoeger's research has dealt with various problems connected with the physics of accretion onto black holes, and mathematical and physical issues connected with torsion and bi-metric theories of gravity, as well as the harmonic map structures contained in gravitational theories, including general relativity. In recent years, Stoeger has also been actively involved in interdisciplinary dialogue and study relating to the natural sciences, particularly the interaction between science and philosophy, science and theology, science and culture. He teaches at the University of Arizona, where he is adjunct associate professor, at the University of San Francisco, and at Vatican Observatory Summer Schools. He is on the Board of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (CTNS), Secretary of the Vatican Observatory Foundation, and co-editor of the series Philosophy in Science. He is also active in the Vatican/CTNS workshops on "God's Action in the World: Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action" and in the Science-Theology Consultations at the Center of Theological Inquiry.

 

Neville Woolf is the Director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute Tucson node, which serves as the main research center for this project. He got his Ph.D. in Astrophysics from Manchester University in 1959, and was a Research Associate at Princeton University Observatory, Princeton, for three years and Lick Observatory, Mt. Hamilton, for three years. From 1965 to 1967 he was an Associate Professor at the University of Texas, Austin, Texas. From 1968 to 1974 he was Professor of Astrophysics and Director of the University Observatories at the University of Minnesota. He has been at the University of Arizona since 1974, where he is currently a Professor of Astronomy, and Astronomer in Steward Observatory. He is a Galileo Circle founding fellow, and has been a Councillor for the American Astronomical Society, an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow, a Fullbright Scholar, and a National Academy of Sciences and National Research Council Senior Postdoctoral Fellow at the NASA Goddard Institute For Space Studies. Woolf is a member of the National Academy Sciences Committee on the Origin and Evolution of Life. He was the first to observe extraterrestrial water in 1963, and the first to observe extraterrestrial silicate minerals in 1968. He has been pursuing the design of a space mission to seek terrestrial planets around other stars since 1986. He is contemplative, working with Hindu, Buddhist and Christian meditation since 1971. He was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1985 and is a Lay Carmelite. Has also written on the history of science, and has done unpublished work on the origin and nature of the New Testament books of Revelations and the Gospel according to John.

 

J. Edward Wright is Director and Associate Professor of Judaic Studies at The University of Arizona. He teaches Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism at both the graduate and undergraduate level. Wright received his Ph.D. from Brandeis University and did additional graduate study at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Harvard Divinity School. He has received several national and international research fellowships, including a Yad Hanadiv/Rothschild Foundation Fellowship at the Hebrew University in 1995-96. He is a Trustee and an Officer of the William F. Albright Institute for Archaeological Research in Jerusalem. Dr. Wright's area of expertise is early Jewish history and religion with particular interest in the field of early Jewish apocryphal texts. These texts shed light on the non-traditional aspects of early Jewish thought and culture. His book "The Early History of Heaven" (Oxford, 2000) combines a study of Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean astronomy with a study of early Jewish astronomical speculation to trace the origin and early development of the images of the heavenly realm in earliest Judaism and Christianity. This book received an "Outstanding Academic Book" award for 2000 from the Association of College and Research Libraries and American Library Association.

 

Staff Support

Thomas Fleming (lecture organizer, publicity, and web-casting) received his A.B. in physics from Cornell University and his Ph.D. is astronomy from the University of Arizona. After spending four years on the science team for the ROSAT X-ray telescope at Max Planck Inst. for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching (near Munich), Germany, he returned to the University of Arizona in 1993, where he is now an Associate Astronomer and Senior Lecturer. He is a full member of both the American Astronomical Society and the International Astronomical Union. Dr. Fleming has served on several peer review and users committees for NASA, mostly in the field of X-ray astronomy. His areas of research include X-ray emission from stars, the nearby stars, very low-mass stars, and white dwarfs. Since 1999, he has been responsible for public outreach and coordination of the astronomy general education program at Steward Observatory. In particular, he serves as organizer and host of the Steward Observatory Public Evening Lecture Series, the observatory's major vehicle for disseminating information on astronomy and space science to the general public. Most recently, Dr. Fleming wrote an extensive 28-chapter set of PowerPoint lecture slides to accompany the textbook, "The Cosmic Perspective," which has been published by Addison-Wesley, Inc.

 

Adrienne Gauthier (instructional materials development, and web design) earned her B.S. in General Science, Concentration in Astronomy and Physics from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst (2001). This unique multidisciplinary degree program was designed by the University and the Physics Department to give those students interested in science education a well-rounded and rigorous exposure to all the sciences. She continued her education at the University of Virginia ( Charlottesville) and earned her M.Ed. in Instructional Technology (2003). She next became a member of the Conceptual Astronomy and Physics Education Research (CAPER) Team ( Tucson, AZ) and was hired by Steward Observatory as an Instructional Specialist Coordinator, working in the Astronomica.org project to design, evaluate, and implement an online course management system specific to astronomy content for the college and outreach student population. Past projects include designing, evaluating, and facilitating Invisible Universe Online for Teachers, a course for in-service K-12 teachers about the multi-wavelength universe sponsored by NASA's SOFIA and SIRTF EPO, designing lesson guides for Cool Cosmos (IPAC/SSC) Infrared Zoo and Infrared Yellowstone image galleries, and writing curriculum for K-12 classrooms that utilize the night sky software package Starry Night Pro. Her specializations are in designing, implementing, and evaluating Internet learning environments, multimedia educational materials, and interactive learning applets.

 

Cathy Petry (events organizer and proceedings editor) graduated with a B.S. degree from Northern Arizona University in Mathematics (1988) and Astronomy and Physics (1992). After spending the summer in a research assistant position with the National Solar Observatory, she was employed at Steward Observatory by Chris Impey as a Research Technician in the Fall of 1992. She has been primarily involved in a series of long-term research projects which focused on mapping out the dark and diffuse gas of the interstellar medium. By studying the distribution and properties of the gas as well as its relationship to galaxies, many questions concerning the formation and evolution of the universe may be addressed. While doing research, she earned her M.S. degree in Astronomy in 1998. In 2001, she was promoted to Senior Research Specialist and is collaborating with graduate students on several research projects. Most recently she has been moving from research to outreach, becoming involved in web page design and the development of educational tools using technology. For example, this fall two books based on conferences hosted by the Vatican Observatory and sponsored by the Templeton Foundation have been published. Cathy played a key role in the organization, editing, artwork design, layout and production of these manuscripts.