Jesuit scientist to speak
as part of lecture
series
By Ginny You
Staff Writer
He is a Jesuit, astronomer, author and asteroid.
And he is giving talks on Wednesday and Thursday on "The Mechanics
of God: Religion and the Technical Mindset" as part of this semester’s
lecture series on Science and Religious Faith held by the physics and
philosophy departments.
His name is Guy Consolmagno, S. J., a man who has
incorporated his faith into astronomy.
"I read his book 'Brother Astronomer' and
it tells of being a scientist and a man of faith," said Roberto
Colella, a professor of physics and one of the initiators of the lecture
series. "From the book, (my wife and I) understood he’s a
respectable man and I’m sure he will be a good speaker."
Consolmagno, who has co-authored four astronomy
books, serves as a curator of one of the largest meteorite collections
in the world, the Vatican meteorite collection, where he has worked
since 1993.
He earned his bachelor's degree in 1974 and master's
degree in 1975 in earth and planetary sciences from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, and he got his doctorate in planetary science
from the University of Arizona in 1978.
After leaving MIT in 1983, he went to serve in
the U.S. Peace Corps for two years and began teaching in1985 as an assistant
professor of physics at Lafayette College, in Easton, Penn. In 1989
he entered the Jesuit order and became a Jesuit brother in 1991.
In 2000, the International Astronomical Union named
asteroid 4597 Consolmagno after him to praise his asteroid and meteorite
studies. Asteroid 4597 Consolmagno is a 20 kilometer-wide rock from
space that orbits reasonably close to the sun.
The idea of having a scientist who's interested
in religion come to speak started when Colella and his wife, Adele,
went to France on Colella’s sabbatical. They were aware of a conference
sponsored by the archbishop that many scientists attended. This spurred
Adele’s idea of starting a series of lectures at Purdue. So Colella
and the philosophy department started bringing in speakers in the fall
of 1994.
According to Colella, it's not necessary that the
speakers are believers of a faith, but that they have to have something
to say about a religious faith.
"Most are believers," said Colella. "We
try to find scientists respected in his field and who has religious
opinions."
This science background and religious faith, as
well as reading Consolmagno’s book, "Brother Astronomer,"
helped Colella chose Consolmagno as the speaker.
"The University community, religious community
and business community joined together in sponsoring this lecture series
due to common interest in relation in the doing of science and holding
a religious faith," said Donald Mitchell, chair of the religious
studies program in the School of Liberal Arts.
Wednesday evening’s talk will be to establish
credentials as a scientist, which will bring people back as well as
entice newcomers to the next evening’s public talk. Each talk should
last about an hour.
Wednesday’s public lecture will be at 8 p.m.
in Fowler Hall. The physics colloquial, which will offer a scientific
perspective, will be at 4 p.m. Thursday in the Physics Building, Room
223. Refreshments will be served at 3:30 p.m. Thursday in the Physics
Building, Room 242.
|
