CTNS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director of Research
- Director of Research at the Paris Institute of Astrophysics
Dr. Guiderdoni is a Director of Research at the Paris Institute of Astrophysics. His main research field is in galaxy formation and evolution. He has published more than 100 papers and has organized several international conferences on these issues. He is one of the referent experts on Islam in France and has published 50 papers on Islamic theology and mystics. He was in charge of a French television program called "Knowing Islam" from 1993 to 1999, and is now the director of the Islamic Institute for Advanced Studies.
Job Titles:
- Director of the Aga Khan University Institute for the Study
Director of the Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (AKU-ISMC), located in London (UK), Dr. Abdou Filali-Ansary was trained in philosophy. From 1970 to 1973, he was professor of modern philosophy at Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco. He held administrative positions from 1973 to 1984, where he became the director of the King Abdul-Aziz Foundation for Islamic Studies and Human Sciences in Casablanca. In 1993, he initiated, along with friends from the academic community in Morocco, a bilingual journal (Arabic and French) entitled Prologues; revue maghrébine du livre.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Religion, Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Founder and President, Counterbalance
Job Titles:
- Director of the King Abdul - Aziz Al Saoud Foundation for Islamic Studies
Ahmed Toufiq is Historian and Director of the King Abdul-Aziz Al Saoud Foundation for Islamic Studies and Human Sciences in Casablanca. He is the Director of the National Library, and has formerly held the position of Director of the Institute of African Studies at Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco. Prof. Toufiq is the author of several works relating to this field, including a large number of articles and publications in national and international newspapers and periodicals. He is also professor at the Faculty of Human Sciences in Rabat.
Job Titles:
- Managing Editor, Theology and Science Journal
Albert Sasson has a PhD in Microbiology, and is Professor at the Rabbat Faculty of Sciences (University Mohamed V). He is former Deputy Director at UNESCO in Paris.
Job Titles:
- Physics Department
- Professor of Physics at Stanford University
Dr. Linde is a Professor of Physics at Stanford University. One of the authors of the inflationary universe scenario, he demonstrated that the energy released during the phase transitions from a strongly supercooled vacuum state may be sufficient to transform a cold universe to a hot one. Linde has written 150 papers on particle physics, phase transitions and cosmology, as well as two books on particle physics and quantum cosmology. He has been awarded the Lomonosov prize of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and he was a Morris Loeb lecturer at Harvard University.
Dr. Newberg is Director of Clinical Nuclear Medicine, Director of NeuroPET Research, and Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Upon graduating from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1993, Dr. Newberg trained in Internal Medicine at the Graduate Hospital in Philadelphia. Newberg's research now largely focuses on how brain function is associated with various mental states-in particular, the relationship between brain function and mystical or religious experiences. The results and implications of this research are delineated in Dr. Newberg's book, Why God Won't Go Away (Ballantine/Random House).
With teaching and research experience in India, Denmark, France, and the USA, Balslev has made important contributions in the areas of cross-cultural studies and Indian philosophy in forums concerning world religion dialogues. She has served on the board of the American Association of the Advancement of Sciences and is currently a nominated member of the International Society for Science and Religion. She is the author of A Study of Time in Indian Philosophy (1999), Cultural Otherness (2000), and is editor of Cross-cultural Conversation (1996).
Anindya Sinha is currently a Fellow of NIAS. A botanist by degree, his past research involved the biochemical genetics of carbohydrate metabolism in yeast. Currently his areas of interest are in areas of behavioral ecology and cognitive psychology of primates, evolutionary biology, conservation biology and the philosophy of biology.
Job Titles:
- Advisor in the Cog - Group at the M.I.T. Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
- Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Foerst is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Research Associate at the Center for the Studies of Values in Public Life at Harvard Divinity School. As a participant in a project in which a robot is being built as an analogue to a human infant, Foerst is interested in demonstrating that dialogue between AI and contemporary theology is of tremendous significance. Additionally, she plans to analyze the extent to which AI and the Cognitive Sciences influence the values and self-understanding of Western Society.
Job Titles:
- Professor and Director of the Center for Automation Research
Dr. Rosenfeld is distinguished university professor and director of the Center for Automation Research at the University of Maryland and holds affiliate professorships in the departments of Computer Science and Psychology and the College of Engineering. He holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from Columbia University, a doctor of Hebrew literature degree from Yeshiva University, and two honorary doctorates. An ordained rabbi, Rosenfeld is widely regarded as the world's leading researcher in the field of computer image analysis; he wrote the first textbook in the field, was founding editor of its first journal and co-chairman of its first international conference. Prof. Rosenfeld has published over twenty-five books and contributed over five hundred book chapters and journal articles. He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, the Association for Computing Machinery, the Washington Academy of Sciences, the Machine Vision Association of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, and the International Association for Pattern Recognition. He has won the latter's premier academic achievement awards, as well as those of the IEEE Computer Society's Committee on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society and the International Association for Pattern Recognition.
Dr. Smith (Ph.D. 1982 MIT) will join the Duke Faculty September 1, 2001 as the Kimberly J. Jenkins University Professor of New Technologies and Society, with appointments in both philosophy and computer science. He previously taught at Indiana University in Bloomington. Before moving to Indiana in 1996 he was principal scientist at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) and an adjunct professor of philosophy at Stanford University. He was a founder of the Center for the Study of Language and Information at Stanford University (CSLI), and a founder and first President of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR). Smith's research focuses on the foundations and philosophy of computing. His writings emphasize the inadequacy of our current understanding of computation, and recommend viewing it as an unrestricted site in which to explore fundamental questions about the relation between meaning and mechanism. He is the author of On the Origin of Objects (MIT Press, 1996), a proposal for a unified metaphysics of ontology and epistemology.
Job Titles:
- Director of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
B. V. Sreekantan has been Director of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and is currently Visiting Professor at NIAS. His research interests have been in cosmic rays, high energy physics and high energy astrophysics. He has a particular interest in philosophy of science and scientific and philosophical studies on consciousness.
Dr. Nicolescu was born in 1942 in Ploiesti, Romania. He received his Ph.D. at Pierre et Marie Curie University, Paris in 1972. A specialist in the theory of elementary particle physics, Basarab Nicolescu is the author of more than a hundred articles in leading international scientific journals, has made numerous contributions to science anthologies and participated in several dozen French radio documentaries on science. He has collaborated for many years with G. F. Chew, former Dean of Physics at the University of California at Berkeley and founder of the Bootstrap Theory. They have jointly published several articles on the topological framework of Bootstrap Theory. Basarab Nicolescu is a major advocate of the transdisciplinary reconciliation between Science and the Humanities. He is the founding President of the International Center for Transdisciplinary Research and Studies (CIRET).
Job Titles:
- Professor Emeritus at the University Paris XI
Dr. d'Espagnat is Professor Emeritus at the University Paris XI where he was the former Director of the Theoretical Physics Laboratory. He is a member of the French National Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. Former student of Louis Leprince Ringuet, he also studied with N. Bohr, E. Fermi and L. de Broglie, he was the first theoretical physicist nominated at the CERN in Geneva, CH, and is considered one of the world's specialists of non-locality and the philosophical implications of Fundamental Physics. He is the author of several books on the philosophical implications of discoveries in science, including "Thinking Science" and "The Search for Reality".
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Program Associate for Finances
- Program Associate for Finances / Lecturer in Science, Technology, and Ethics, Graduate Theological Union
C. S. Unnikrishnan is presently Reader at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (Mumbai), Adjunct Professor at Indian Institute of Astrophysics (Bangalore), Faculty Associate at Centre for Philosophy and Foundations of Science (Delhi) and Visiting Professor Ecole Normale Superieure (Paris). His research interests are in fundamental aspects of physical theories and their experimental tests.
Job Titles:
- Research Scientist
- Biology Department
Dr. Feit is a noted cancer research scientist and is occupant of the Dr. Joseph and Rachel Ades Chair in Health Sciences at Yeshiva University, where he serves as Chairperson of the Science Division of Yeshiva College since 1985. Prior to that he was a research scientist at The Laboratory of Immunodiagnosis at the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research. Dr. Feit also serves on the editorial board of Cancer Investigation. He is also a Talmudic Scholar and has lectured and taught Talmud classes for many years
Job Titles:
- Minister of Seniors and Care, First Congregational Church, Berkeley ( Retired )
Job Titles:
- Founder of the 'Institut International De Pathologie Cellulaire
D. P. Chattopadhyaya was the first Chairman of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research (1981-90) and Chairman of the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla (1981-91). Currently he is Director and General Editor of the 77-volume multidisciplinary Project of History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilizations. Among his notable writings are: Societies, Cultures and Ideologies and Science, Society, Value and Civilizational Dialogue.
D. R. Kaarthikeyan is a lawyer by profession. He has been involved with human rights, terrorism, insurgency and extremism, values and attitudes, rural development, agriculture, religious harmony, social justice and spirituality.
A development economist, Devaki Jain held a fellowship at Centre for Advanced Studies at the Delhi School of Economics and was a Fulbright Fellow. She has been a member of the Government of Karnataka's State Planning Board (India), and a member of eminent expert groups for both the Indian Government and UN agencies.
Imad Ad Din Ahmed is astronomer and Professor of Social Change and of Religion and Progress at the John Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies and at the University of Maryland. President and Director of the Minaret of Freedom Institute, USA, he is the author of Signs in the Heaven: A Muslim Astronomer's Perspective on Religion and Science.
Job Titles:
- Professor Emeritus of the Art of Computer Programming
Dr. Knuth is Professor Emeritus of The Art of Computer Programming at Stanford University. He is the author of numerous books, including three volumes of The Art of Computer Programming. He has received many awards, including the Turing Award from the Association for Computing Machinery; the National Medal of Science from President Carter (1979); the Steele Prize from the American Mathematical Society; the John von Neumann Medal from the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers; and the Kyoto Prize from the Inamori Foundation. He holds honorary doctorates from several institutions, including Oxford University, the University of Paris, the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, and fourteen colleges and universities in America.
Donna Auguste founded Freshwater Software, Inc. in 1996 to bring to market tools that would help companies harness the Internet and technology to grow their businesses. Prior to founding Freshwater, Auguste was senior director for US West Advanced Technologies, was a key engineering manager for the landmark Newton Personal Digital Assistant product family at Apple Computer, and spent six years at IntelliCorp as part of the engineering team that introduced some of the world's first commercial artificial intelligence knowledge engineering technology products. Auguste holds a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley. She has completed graduate studies in Computer Science at Carnegie-Mellon University. She was awarded four patents by the US Patent and Trademark Office for her innovative engineering work on the Apple Newton Personal Digital Assistant. Auguste is the editor of a business newsletter, WomenCompute.com, and is active in her community as a gospel musician and a volunteer for children's organizations. She is currently leading an effort to bring solar-powered electricity and e-mail communication to hospital clinics in remote villages in Africa.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Physics at St. Lawrence University
Dr. Aileen A. O'Donoghue is an Associate Professor of Physics at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, USA. Born in Denver, Colorado, Dr. O'Donoghue graduated from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. She then went on to the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology where she earned her M.S. with a study of comets at the Joint Observatory for Cometary Research and her Ph. D. with a study of galaxies at the Very Large Array Radio Telescope. She joined the faculty of St. Lawrence University as she was finishing her Ph.D. and was granted tenure there in 1993. In 1995 she was a visiting professor and scientist at Cornell University where she became involved with optical observations of galaxies, funded by the Judge Francis Bergan Career Development Award in Astrophysics, awarded by the Dudley Observatory in Schenectady, New York. She returned to the VLA for four months in 1996 to continue her galaxy studies in radio. Aileen is also an Oblate of the Monastery of Christ in the Desert in Abiquiu, New Mexico and a commissioned lay minister in the Diocese of Ogdensburg, New York.
Benjamin Libet was born April 12, 1916 in Chicago, Illinois and raised there as well. He attended the University of Chicago, gaining an S.B. in 1936 (Physiology) and a Ph.D. in 1939 (also Physiology). His thesis work dealt with the electrical activity of the isolated frog brain, under the supervision of Ralph W. Gerard. Libet is Professor Emeritus of Physiology at UCSF, where he began a faculty position in 1949. Before that, he was an instructor in Albany Medical College (New York), a research fellow in the Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital (in neurochemistry) in Philadelphia, and instructor in the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, and an assistant professor at the University of Chicago (1945-1948). He spent the year 1956-1957 working with Sir John Eccles in Canberra, Australia. Among other things, Eccles and Popper authored the book The Self and Its Brain.
Job Titles:
- Designer, Researcher and Writer
Dr. Laurel is a designer, researcher and writer. Her work focuses on interactive narrative, human-computer interaction, and cultural aspects of technology. Her career in human-computer interaction spans over twenty years. She holds an M.F.A. and Ph.D. in theatre from the Ohio State University. Her doctoral dissertation was the first to propose a comprehensive architecture for computer-based interactive fantasy and fiction. Brenda was one of the founding members of the research staff at Interval Research Corporation in Palo Alto, California, where she coordinated research activities exploring gender and technology, and where she co-produced and directed the Placeholder Virtual Reality project. She was also one of the founders and VP/Design of a spinoff company from Interval-Purple Moon-formed to market products based on this research. Purple Moon was acquired by Mattel in 1999. In 1990 she co-founded Telepresence Research, Inc. to develop virtual reality and remote presence technology and applications. She has worked as a software designer, producer, and researcher for companies including Atari, Activision, and Apple. Brenda has published extensively on topics including interactive fiction, computer games, autonomous agents, virtual reality, and political and artistic issues in interactive media. Brenda lives with her husband Rob Tow and their family at their house Locus Voci in the Santa Cruz Mountains above the Silicon Valley region of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Dr. Vargha-Khadem was born in Tehran, Iran and completed her graduate studies in 1979 at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She completed her post-doctoral training at the Montreal Children's Hospital in 1981, thereafter joining the Faculty of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University where she worked for two years before moving to London, England. In 1983, she accepted a faculty research position at the Institute of Child Health, London, where she has remained to the present time. During this period, she has created the first academic department of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience in the UK, and its clinical counterpart, the Department of Neuropsychology at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. Dr. Vargha-Khadem's research and clinical work is directed toward understanding the cognitive and behavioural deficits of brain-injured children in terms of the underlying neuropathology, with the goal of developing new knowledge about the ontogeny of specific neural systems. Together with her colleagues, Dr. Vargha-Khadem has made a series of landmark discoveries concerning the ontogenetic neural bases of episodic and semantic memory, speech and language, and differences in the functional organization of the developing brain as compared with that of the mature brain. In recognition of her contributions to the field, she holds a personal chair in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London. She was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 1998, and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2000. Dr. Vargha-Khadem is a member of the Baha'i Faith, a world religion dedicated to establishing peace and unity among mankind.
Frans B.M. de Waal (born 1948, the Netherlands) was trained as a zoologist and ethologist in the European tradition at three Dutch universities (Nijmegen, Groningen, Utrecht), resulting in a Ph.D. in biology from the University of Utrecht, in 1977. His dissertation research concerned aggressive behavior and alliance formation in macaques. In 1981, Dr. de Waal accepted a research position at the Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. He received the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Peacemaking among Primates (Harvard University Press, 1989) a popularized account of fifteen years of research on conflict resolution in nonhuman primates. Since the mid-1980s, Dr. de Waal also worked on chimpanzees at the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center and their close relatives, bonobos, at the San Diego Zoo. In 1991, Dr. de Waal accepted a joint position in the Psychology Department of Emory University and at the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center, both in Atlanta.
Hendrik (Henk) Barendregt studied mathematics at Utrecht University specializing in logic and completed his Ph.D. in 1971 on the topic of lambda calculus with Georg Kreisel. At that university he continued to work and wrote his monograph The Lambda Calculus (1981). Since 1986 he has been a professor at Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen, and currently holds the Chair of the Department of Foundations of Mathematics and Computer Science. In 1997 Barendregt was elected member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences. He is currently working on a book on Type Theory. As a post-doc at Stanford University Barendregt came in contact with his first Buddhist teacher Kobun Chino Roshi, through whom he began training at the Tassajara Zen mountain center. Back in the Netherlands he met his present Buddhist teacher Phra Khru Kraisaravilasa Mettavihari and has been studying vipassana meditation with him. Barendregt is trying to connect phenomenological information obtained via intensive meditation retreats with those obtained through neurophysiology.
Dr. Goodall began her landmark study of chimpanzees in Tanzania in June 1960, under the mentorship of anthropologist and paleontologist Dr. Louis Leakey. Her work at the Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve would become the foundation of future primatological research and redefine the relationship between humans and animals. Dr. Goodall defied scientific convention by giving the chimpanzees names instead of numbers, and insisted on the validity of her observations that the chimps had distinct personalities, minds and emotions. She established the Gombe Stream Research Center in 1964. In 1977, Goodall established the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), which supports the Gombe work and other research, education and conservation programs. Dr. Goodall travels and speaks an average 300 days per year, and continually urges her audiences to recognize their personal responsibility and ability to effect change through consumer action, lifestyle change and activism. Dr. Goodall's scores of honors include the Medal of Tanzania, the National Geographic Society's Hubbard Medal, and the prestigious Kyoto Prize. In 2001 she received the third Gandhi-King Peace Award for Nonviolence, presented at the United Nations by the World Movement for Nonviolence. Her list of publications includes In the Shadow of Man and Through a Window,as well as two autobiographies in letters, the spiritual autobiography Reason for Hope and many children's books. The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior, is recognized as the definitive work on chimpanzees and is the culmination of Jane Goodall's scientific career. She has been the subject of numerous television documentaries and is featured in the large-screen format film, Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees (2002). Dr. Goodall is a member of the advisory panel named by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan to promote the goals of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, to be held in Johannesburg in September 2002.
Dr. Chamcham lives in Casablanca, Morocco. He received his Doctorate in Nuclear Physics, from the University Claude Bernard, Lyon I, France in 1983 Since 1988 he has organized Morocco's national meetings in Astronomy at the University of Casablanca. He received his second PhD from the University of Sussex, UK in Astrophysics in 1995. Now a Full Professor at the University Hassan II-Ain Chock in Casablanca, he has initiated, for the first time in Morocco, undergraduate and postgraduate curricula in Astronomy and Astrophysics. His research interests include the stability of galactic discs, star formation, chemical evolution of galaxies, and photometric evolution of galaxies. Dr. Chamcham is a Muslim and is currently organizing an International Colloquium on the History of Islamic Astronomy, at the Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Italy.
Dr. Schäfer was born in West Germany and received his doctorate in Chemistry from the University of Munich in 1965. After postdoctoral work at the University of Oslo and research at Indiana University, Bloomington, he accepted a position at the University of Arkansas in 1968. He has held the E. Wertheim Distinguished Professorship at that institution since 1989. Dr. Schäfer's research interests include Physical Chemistry, Applied Quantum Chemistry, and Computational Chemistry. He is the author of In Search of Divine Reality-Science as a Source of Inspiration, University of Arkansas Press, 1997.
Job Titles:
- Herschel Burgess Chair and Distinguished Professor
Marlan Scully is the Herschel Burgess Chair and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physics at Texas A&M University and the Director of the Center for Theoretical Physics. He received his B.S. in Engineering Physics from the University of Wyoming in 1961 and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Physics from Yale University in 1963 and 1966, respectively. Scully joined the faculty at Texas A&M in 1992. In addition, he has held a position at the Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik since 1980. Scully has made outstanding research accomplishments over his long career in the areas of quantum optics, laser physics and bioengineering, and still continues to make significant accomplishments today. In addition to writing the first definitive textbook on laser physics, Scully has been published in non-technical scientific literature, including Scientific American, Physics Today, Nature, Science and Science News. Scully is dedicated to the promotion of science to public school teachers and has demonstrated this through a summer school program he organizes each year with a colleague. He has also organized a winter colloquium in his field for the past 30 years. Scully was recently appointed to the American Physical Society Task Force on Informing the Public.
Michael Merzenich is a renowned scientist and educator and is the founder of the Scientific Learning Corporation which develops the reading and language learning program Fast ForWord, among other products. He holds the Francis A. Sooy Chair of Otolaryngology and Physiology at the University of California at San Francisco, and with his wife Diane established the Merzenich Chair in Education at the University of Portland-a gift to the Defining Moment Campaign. Michael is an expert on brain function, specifically brain plasticity, or the capacity for growth, and he is both a medical inventor and a software developer. He has a Ph.D. in neurophysiology from Johns Hopkins. Among his awards are the international Ipsen Prize for his work in brain plasticity. Michael is a member of the University's Presidential Advisory Council for the College of Arts and Sciences.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director of Knowledge Management
Dr. Munawar A. Anees is the Executive Director of Knowledge Management Systems (KnowSys) based in Arizona. A biologist by training, he is widely known as a writer and a cultural critic. He is the author of several books and over 300 articles on religion and science, bioethics, and Islamic studies. One of his works, Islam and Biological Futures; Ethics, Gender and Technology, is considered a classic on Islamic bioethics. The Founding and Advisory Editor of many scholarly journals, including Journal of Islamic Science, his Periodica Islamica was hailed as a pioneering initiative on current awareness. An advisor to the former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, he is an elected member of the Royal Academy of Jordan. Anees was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in February 2002.
Dr. Muzaffar Iqbal is the founder-president of the Center for Islam and Science (CIS), Canada, and Regional Director for the Muslim World for the Science and Religion Course Program (SRCP) of the CTNS. Dr. Iqbal received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada and has held academic and research positions at several universities. Between 1991-96, he worked as Director of Scientific Information for the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation (COMSTECH) and later as Director of International Cooperation at the Pakistan Academy of Sciences (PAS). He is the author and editor of several books, including, Science in Islamic Polity in the Twenty-first Century (ed., 1995), Health and Medical Profile of the Muslim World (ed., 1993), Possible Strategy for Energy Mixes in the Muslim World (Co-ed., 1994), and Mineral Profile of the Muslim World (ed., 1995). His latest books are: Islam and Science (Ashgate, 2002) and God, Life and the Cosmos: Christian and Islamic Perspectives (Co-ed. Ashgate, 2002).
Dr. Herzfeld is both a computer scientist and a theologian. She is Associate Professor of Computer Science at St. John's University (www.csbsju.edu) in Collegeville MN. She received a B.A. from St. Olaf College in Mathematics and Music, an M.A. in Mathematics and an M.S. in Computer Science from Penn State, an M.A. in Theology from St. John's University, and a Ph.D. in Christian Spirituality from the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. Noreen just completed a year as a visiting scholar at the Center for Theology and Natural Science in Berkeley. Her current research investigates the intersection between computer technology and Christian theology. Noreen is a member of the Lutheran Church (ELCA) when in Minnesota, and the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) when in California. In her spare time, she is a certified wine judge and sings in an early music group, The Collegeville Consort, which has recently recorded their first CD.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Natural Philosophy
Paul Davies was born in London in 1946, and obtained a doctorate from University College London in 1970. He is currently Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Australian Centre for Astrobiology at Macquarie University, Sydney. He has held academic appointments at Cambridge and London Universities, the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, the University of Adelaide and the University of Queensland, although he remains based in South Australia, where he runs a science, media and publishing consultancy called Orion Productions. In addition to his research, Professor Davies is well known as an author, broadcaster and public lecturer. He has written over twenty-five books, both popular and specialist works. In 1995 Davies was awarded the Templeton Prize for progress in religion, the world's largest prize for intellectual endeavour. Paul Davies is married, and has four children.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Astrophysics at the Institute for Advanced Study
Piet Hut is Professor of Astrophysics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where he has been since 1985. He is currently involved in a Tokyo-based project aimed at developing a special purpose computer for simulations in stellar dynamics, with a speed of 1 Petaflops. Besides his work in theoretical astrophysics, much of his research has a broadly interdisciplinary character: he has co-authored papers with computer scientists, particle physicists, geologists, paleontologists, psychologists, and philosophers. During the last few years, he has organized a series of workshops to investigate the character of intrinsic limits to scientific knowledge. There are three main questions he has focused on. To what extent can limits be seen as dictated by the structure of human knowledge? To what extent are limits given in the structure of nature itself? And to what extent are limits inherent in any attempt at mapping reality into a model?
Dr. Das was born in Boston and did his undergraduate work at Reed College with theses in both theoretical physics and international studies His Ph.D. is from the University of Texas at Austin where he was a member of the Ilya Prigogine Center for Complex Systems. He was the first to show the presence of chaotic dynamics in a very small model neural network and has published several papers in that area His academic work spans the fields of neuroscience, nonlinear dynamics and chaos theory, the physics of granular materials, media studies and the history and the philosophy of science. Dr. Das is currently Chair of the Department of Physics at Elon University. His work there has been supported by many awards and grants including a Templeton Foundation Course Award and other private foundation funding as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities. His forthcoming book, Science and Religion: Bridging the Gap, will be released by Wadsworth in 2002. In the popular press, Pranab Das has written scores of newspaper columns and book reviews and is presently at work on two book projects entitled Grappling Titans: The History of Science and Religion and Being Free: Mindfulness, Science and Human Freedom.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Watson Research Center, IBM
Praveen Chaudhari was born into a Hindu family in India and immigrated to the U.S. in 1961. He holds a B.S. from the Indian Institute of Technology and both an M.S. and Sc.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1966, he joined IBM's Research Division, headquartered at the Watson Research Center in Yorktown, New York. Chaudhari had a productive 36-year career with IBM as a scientist and senior manager of research being appointed Director in 1981 and Vice-President of Science in 1982. The science programs flourished during Chaudhari's management tenure in the IBM Research Division. Materials research, for example, became the basis of the $2-billion-a-year optical-disk industry. Also under Chaudhari's watch, IBM scientists captured Nobel Prizes in physics for two consecutive years. In 1991, Chaudhari returned full-time to research primarily in the area of materials physics. He has published over a hundred and sixty technical papers and holds over twenty patents. Chaudhari has been honored with the National Medal of Technology (1995), the American Physical Society's George E. Pake Award (1987) for his personal contributions to science and science management, and the Excellence Award of the US Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the American Physical Society, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. In 1993, at the request of the Indian Minister for Sciences and Technology, he led an IBM group to evaluate India's parallel computer activities; and, in 1994, he made a presentation to Indian Prime Minister Rao on materials and critical technologies. In 2003 Dr. Chaudhari was appointed Director of the Brookhaven National Laboratory. Brookhaven Lab employs more than 2,800 scientists, engineers, technicians, and support staff and has an annual budget of $463 million. Major programs include nuclear and high-energy physics, physics and chemistry of materials, environmental and energy research, nonproliferation, neurosciences and medical imaging, and structural biology.
In her work, Char Davies explores the perceptual paradoxes of being embodied in virtual space. Her immersive virtual-reality environments are world renowned for their use of breath as navigational interface, their lyrical evocation of the natural environment, and their profound emotional effect on participants. To date, Osmose (1995) has been exhibited in Montreal, New York, the UK and Mexico. Ephemere (1998) premiered at the National Gallery of Canada. Formerly a painter and filmmaker, Char Davies began working with 3D digital media in the late '80s. She was a founding director of the software company Softimage, leaving two years ago to create Immersence, as a vehicle for pursuing artistic research.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Psychology at Harvard University
Dr. Kosslyn is a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and an Associate Psychologist in the Department of Neurology at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Kosslyn received his B.A. in 1970 from UCLA and his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1974, both in psychology. He taught at Johns Hopkins, Harvard, and Brandeis Universities before joining the Harvard Faculty as Professor of Psychology in 1983. Kosslyn's work focuses on the nature of visual mental imagery and high-level vision, as well as applications of psychological principles in visual display design. He has published over 200 papers on these topics, authored or co-authored six books, and co-edited nine books. His books include Image and Mind (1980), Ghosts in the Mind's Machine (1983), Wet Mind: The New Cognitive Neuroscience (with O. Koenig, 1992), Elements of Graph Design (1994), and Image and Brain: The Resolution of the Imagery Debate (1994). Dr. Kosslyn has received numerous honors, including the National Academy of Sciences Initiatives in Research Award, the Jean-Louis Signoret Prix, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Society of Experimental Psychologists.
Ursula Goodenough was born in New York City in 1943 and is currently Professor of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis MO. She has 5 children, ages 16-31. She was educated at Radcliffe and Barnard Colleges (B.A. Zoology, 1963), Columbia University (M.A. Zoology, 1965) and Harvard University (Ph.D. Biology, 1969), did 2 years of postdoctoral at Harvard, and was Assistant and Associate Professor of Biology at Harvard from 1971-1978 before moving to Washington University. Her research has focused on the cell biology and (molecular) genetics of the sexual phase of the life cycle of the unicellular eukaryotic green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and, more recently, on the evolution of the genes governing mating-related traits. She wrote 3 editions of a widely adopted textbook, Genetics, and has served in numerous capacities in national biomedical arenas. Dr. Goodenough joined the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science in 1989 and served continuously on its Council and as its president for 4 years.
Job Titles:
- President, Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley
- Professor of Theology at the General Theological Seminary
The Rev. Dr. W. Mark Richardson is Professor of Theology at the General Theological Seminary in New York, and a priest in the Episcopal Church. Richardson is the co-editor of Religion and Science: History, Method and Dialogue, a book described by the London Times as "a must for serious students," and which also won a 1996 Templeton Book Prize. He is also editor of Human and Divine Agency. Richardson conceived and directed the original Science and Spiritual Quest project, which culminated in a national conference at the University of California, Berkeley in 1998 that received international attention.
Dr. Hurlbut is currently teaching courses on Biomedical Ethics at Stanford University in the Department of Biology. Biotechnology and Ethics: Beyond Relativism and Symposium Proceedings is his current manuscript for the Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies at George Washington University. He is frequently requested to speak at symposiums, conferences, and with the media. Recently, his expertise was requested at NASA and as guest lecture with sixteen Nobel Prize winners at UNESCO in Paris, France. One topic of particular concern to Bill is the effects on society by striving for human perfection in the age of biomedical technology. With the advances in biotechnology, medicine is increasingly being used for purposes beyond the traditional concept of healing, in the quest for a perfect life. As a medical student, Bill studied under renowned scientists including Paul Berg who won the Nobel Prize for his work in recombinant DNA. He earned his M.D. in 1974 from the Stanford University Medical Center and completed post-doctoral studies in Theology and Medical Ethics at this university. Between 1977 and 1984, he undertook an independent study with Rev. Louis Bouyer of France. He also writes, performs, and records music and poetry.
Dr. Altukhov was born on October 11, 1936 in the Elan'-Koleno Voronezh region of the former USSR. He studied five years at the Moscow Fishery Technological Institute at the Dept. of Physiology, then worked for the Karadag Biological Station of Ukrainian Academy of Sciences as a researcher. He received his Ph.D. from Moscow State University in 1967. Since then he has held positions as Senior Researcher of Moscow State University; Head of the Genetics Laboratory at the Institute of Marine Biology, Far East Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladivostok; Head of the Population Genetic Laboratory at the Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow; and Academician at the Russian Academy of Sciences. His main scientific interests are population and evolutionary genetics of animal and plant species.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Physics at the University of Texas
Dr. Sudarshan is a Professor of Physics at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to this he was a member of the Rochester and Syracuse University faculties. Sudarshan's main research interest is Particle Physics. In 1957, he was a co-discoverer of the Universal V-A Interaction. He also formulated the "Optical Equivalence Theorem" which established a bridge between classical coherence theory and quantum optics.
Job Titles:
- Vice - President, Retired, the John Templeton Foundation
Dr. Varela was born in Chile in 1946, and holds a doctoral degree in biological sciences from Harvard University (1970). Currently he lives and works in France, where he is Director of Research at the Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), a senior member of CREA, Ecole Polytechnique, and Head of the Neurodynamics Unit at LENA (Laboratory of Cognitive Neurosciences and Brain Imaging) at the Salpetriere Hospital, Paris. His interests have centered on the biological mechanisms of cognitive phenomena and human consciousness, both at the level of experimental research using a variety of methods, and conceptual foundations, including philosophical analyses and mathematical modeling. He has contributed more than 200 articles on these matters in international scientific journals and is the editor of eight collections and the author of a dozen books many of them translated into several languages. Dr. Varela has taught and conducted research extensively in South America, the United States, and Europe, he is a Guggenheim and von Humboldt Fellow, the recipient of the Interamerican Science Prize in Biological Sciences for 1986 and the Presidential Medal of Italy (1999). He has also been a Buddhist practitioner for over twenty-five years, and active in fostering a modern dialog between Dharma and science. He is the co-founder of the "Mind and Life" dialogues on science and Buddhism with HH Dalai Lama that started fifteen years ago.
Job Titles:
- Chief Priest of Hanazono Shrine, Medical Doctor ( Shintoist )
Dr. Katayama was born in Tokyo in 1936. After graduating from a Shinto university, he graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, Showa University in 1966 and acquired his PhD in medical science in 1971. After working as lecturer of public health at the Tokyo Women's Medical University, Dr. Katayama became chief priest of the Hanazono Shrine. As a medical doctor and a Shinto chief priest, he has published numerous books bridging the two disciplines of medicine and religion.
Gaymon Bennett holds a master's degree from the Graduate Theological Union in theological ethics and is currently a student in the doctoral studies program in systematic theology. For three years he has served as Director of Communications for the Science and Religion Course Program at the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (CTNS) in Berkeley. At CTNS his research focuses on the relationship between science, religion, society and culture, with particular emphasis on bioethics. Additionally, he serves as research assistant to the Ethics Advisory Board of the Geron Corporation, a company focusing on stem cell research and therapeutics. He is a published author on the topic of genetics and ethics as well as co-editor, with Ted Peters, of the upcoming volume, Bridging Science and Religion.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Capetown
Dr. Ellis is a professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Capetown. His professional research work concentrates on relativity theory and cosmology and he has published over 200 scientific papers and several books including The Large scale Structure of Space Time, which he co-authored with Steven Hawking. He published several papers on the relationship between science and religion and is active on several Quaker committees and boards.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Royal Academy of Physicians
Graham Walker is a physician and a member of the Royal Academy of Physicians, London.
H. N. Shankar is Assistant Professor at Department of Electronics/Communication, PES Institute of Technology in Bangalore, India.
Biophysicist Harold Morowitz became the Clarence J. Robinson Professor of Biology and Natural Philosophy at George Mason University after teaching at Yale University as Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry and serving for five years as Master of Pierson College. The author of several books, Morowitz has written extensively on the thermodynamics of living systems, as well as on popular topics in science. Included in those publications are Mayonnaise and the Origins of Life, Cosmic Joy and Local Pain, The Thermodynamics of Pizza, and, in 1993, Entropy and the Magic Flute. In his current research, Morowitz is investigating the interface of biology and information sciences and continues his exploration of the origins of life. His books published in 1992 are The Origin of Cellular Life: Metabolism Recapitulates Biogenesis and The Facts of Life (co-authored with James Trefil). He is Staff Scientist and former Director of the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Complexity.
Job Titles:
- Human Communication Research Center, University of Edinburgh
Dr. Thompson is a Reader in the Department of Artificial Intelligence and the Centre for Cognitive Science at the University of Edinburgh, where he is also a member of the Human Communication Research Centre. Since coming to Edinburgh in 1980, he has become a leading member of the British and European speech and language processing research community. His research interests are in the area of Natural Language and Speech processing, from both the applications and Cognitive Science perspectives.
Hubert Reeves is an astrophysicist, and one of the scientists best known to the French public. He has been Research Director at the National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS) since 1966, while connected to the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique of Saclay in France. He is an honorary Doctor at the University of Montreal and attached to the University as Associate Professor. Former scientific advisor to the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), he has published numerous specialized articles and books destined to popularize Astrophysics to a wide audience.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Theology and Science, Graduate Theological Union / Director
Ian Barbour, whose work in the 1950s and 1960s served as a catalyst for the current dialogue between science and theology, presents four ways for understanding the relationship between science and religion: conflict, independence, dialogue, and integration. Barbour then surveys areas of scientific and theological concern using this typology, including quantum physics, evolution, genetics, divine action, astronomy, and creation. Buy now.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Mathematics at the Mohammed
Professor of Mathematics at the Mohammed V University, chair of Mathematic Analysis, and visiting professor in many international universities, Dr. Idriss Khalil is a member of the Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco, and the Islamic Academy of Sciences. He is a former Minister of Education (Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche Scientifique).
Job Titles:
- Professor of Mathematics at the University of Paris La Sorbonne
Dr. Vauthier is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Paris La Sorbonne, Vauthier is the author of numerous articles and 12 books on mathematics and the philosophy of science including An Open Letter to Researchers Who Take Themselves for God ( Lettre ouverte aux savants qui se prennent pour Dieu) and The Mathematician's Cloak co-authored with the theologian Pere Marie Dominique Philippe. Besides, his academic career Vauthier is the editor in chief of the Scientists and Believers, a collection of the Editions Beuchesse, where he has published eight books of interviews with Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist scientists on the theme of science and religion. He also works as an international expert in knowledge based industries and information technology and is the director of EduFrance which is directly affiliated to the Ministries of Education and Foreign Affairs.
Jean Kovalevsky is an astronomer, and a member of the Academy of Sciences. President of the International Committee of Weights and Measures, and Specialist in Celestial Mechanics and Astronomy, he was formerly in charge of the International Consortium FAST, analyzing the data from the Satellite Hipparcos. He is a Former Director of CERGA at the Observatory of the Cote d'Azur.
Job Titles:
- Founder and General Secretary of the Interdisciplinary University of Paris
Jean Staune is Founder and General Secretary of the Interdisciplinary University of Paris. He is Assistant Professor of Philosophy of Sciences at the MBA of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales and a member of the John Templeton Foundation Board of Advisors and ESSSAT. His research focuses on philosophical and social implications of new scientific discoveries.
Job Titles:
- Program Director, Science
Program Director, Science and the Spiritual Quest Jim Schaal served as Program Director of Science and the Spiritual Quest, a program of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences in Berkeley, California. He worked closely with the academic leaders of the SSQ program on strategic planning and conceptual design, developed content for communications and media productions, and managed the staff, finances, and infrastructure of the program. Jim studied liberal arts and taught mathematics at De
ep Springs College and earned a dual baccalaureate degree in physics and philosophy from the University of California at Davis, where he specialized in quantum optics, formal logic, and philosophy of science. Upon graduation he gained several years' experience in information systems management, training, and marketing in the financial services industry; he has also written narration scripts for two award-winning wildlife documentaries. Before joining SSQ in 1999, Jim served for three years as Development Director and Community Organizer for Peninsula Interfaith Action, where he raised funds, managed public relations, and trained local congregations of diverse faiths to address community issues such as public education enrichment and affordable housing.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Mathematical Sciences at Cambridge
Dr. Barrow is a professor of Mathematical Sciences at Cambridge. Previously a professor of Astronomy and Director of the Astronomy Centre, University of Sussex, he is the author of more than 240 research papers in cosmology and astrophysics and has authored 10 books. Noted lectureships include the 1989 Gifford Lectures, the Darwin Lecture of the Royal Astronomical Society and the Spinoza Lecture at the University of Amsterdam. He has also lectured at the Vatican Palace. Dr. Barrow's relevant publications include The Left Hand of Creation: The Origin and Evolution of the Expanding Universe, The Anthropic Cosmological Principle and The Artful Universe.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Philosophy at California State University
Joseph Prabhu is Professor of Philosophy at California State University, Los Angeles and Visiting Professor of Religion at University of California at Berkeley. He is a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Center for the Study of World Religions and is co-editor of Revision, a journal of consciousness and transformation. He is completing a book entitled, Gandhi and a Culture of Peace; Reflections on Contemporary Crises (2004).
Job Titles:
- Managing Editor, Theology and Science and Lecturer in Philosophical Theology and the Natural Sciences, Graduate Theological Union
K. Ramakrishna Rao was Director of the Institute for Parapsychology and the Executive Director of the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man. He is the founder-editor of the Journal of Indian Psychology. His most recent book is Consciousness Studies: Cross-Cultural Perspectives (2002).
Dr. Kendler is the Rachel Brown Banks Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Professor of Human Genetics at the Medical College of Virginia, and Director of the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics at Virginia Commonwealth University. He has published more than 230 articles and several book chapters and has received the Lieber Prize for outstanding research in schizophrenia as well as the Dean Award for 1998 from the American College of Psychiatrists in recognition of his major contributions to the understanding of schizophrenic disorders. Shaikh Abdul Mabud The Islamic Academy
Job Titles:
- Professor at Brown University
Dr. Miller is a professor at Brown University and a specialist in cellular development. Author of several biology textbooks, Dr. Miller is intensely involved in fighting creationism in the United States, in collaboration with the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is the author of Finding Darwin's God, a book which defends a Darwinian vision of evolution, as well as the possibility of rendering this vision compatible with Christian faith.
Job Titles:
- Founding Executive Editor of Wired Magazine
Kevin Kelly is the founding Executive Editor of Wired Magazine, which won the National Magazine Award for Excellence in 1994 and 1997. Kelly is also founding member of the WELL, a Sausalito-based teleconferencing system which was a pioneer in online service. He is the author of Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Economic and Social Systems.
Job Titles:
- Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics
Dr. Eaves is the Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics and Director of the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and behavioral Sciences at the Medical College of Virginia Commonwealth University. He is also an Episcopal priest. In 1997, Eaves was an Invited Lecturer at Harvard Divinity School, and he is past President of both the International Society for the Study of Twins and the Behavior Genetics Association.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Moral Theology, Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley
Job Titles:
- Associate Fellow in Philosophy
M. G. Narashimhan is Associate Fellow in Philosophy, Science and Society Unit at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, and is presently working in History and Philosophy of Life Sciences.
M. L. Bhaumik is a laser physicist and co-inventor of the first excimer laser. During his 25-year career in laser research, he has published over 50 professional papers and is the holder of a dozen patents in the laser field. Bhaumik is an elected fellow of the American Physical Society as well as the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.
A plant geneticist by training, M. S. Swaminathan's contributions to the agricultural renaissance of India led to his being widely regarded as one of the scientific leaders of the Green Revolution movement. His advocacy of sustainable agriculture makes him an acknowledged world leader in the field of sustainable food security. He is President of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.
Job Titles:
- President of the Indian National Science Academy
M. S. Valiathan is currently President of the Indian National Science Academy. A surgeon, he has spent over 25 years practicing and teaching cardiac surgery and the development of technology for cardiovascular applications. He is an admirer of the traditional systems of knowledge and Sanskrit.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Computer Science and Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University
Dr. Veloso is Associate Professor of Computer Science and Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University. She received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University in 1992. A native of Portugal, she received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1980 and an M.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 1984 from the Instituto Superior Tecnico in Lisbon. Dr. Veloso researches in the area of artificial intelligence. Her long-term research goal is the effective construction of intelligent agents where cognition, perception, and action are combined to autonomously address planning, execution, and learning tasks. She has developed robotic soccer teams that have participated in the RoboCup international competitions in three different categories, namely simulation software agents, small-wheeled robots, and Sony four-legged robots. Dr. Veloso is the Vice-President of the RoboCup International Federation. Dr. Veloso received an NSF Career Award in 1995 and the Allen Newell Medal for Excellence in Research in 1997. She is the author of one book on Planning by Analogical Reasoning, editor of several other books, and the author of over 70 technical journals and conference papers. More details are available at http://www.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Organismic Biology at the University of Colorado
Marc Bekoff is Professor of Organismic Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and is a Fellow of the Animal Behavior Society and a former Guggenheim Fellow. He recently was awarded the Exemplar Award from the Animal Behavior Society for major long-term contributions to the field of animal behavior. Marc is also regional coordinator for Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots program. He and Jane have recently co-founded the international organization Ethologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals: Citizens for Responsible Animal Behavior Studies (www.ethologicalethics.org). Marc received his Ph. D. from Washington University, St. Louis in Animal Behavior in 1972. Marc's main areas of research include animal behavior, cognitive ethology (the study of animal minds), and behavioral ecology, and he has also published extensively on animal protection. He has published over 150 papers and 13 books.
Dr. Pesce is a co-creator of Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML). Pesce's networking research made it possible and now commonplace to dial into a remote network. He was the Principal Engineer for Shiva Corporation, the company credited with inventing dial-up networking. Pesce has developed a program at San Francisco State University, College of Extended Learning that trains students in all facets of production and design of 3D media, with an emphasis in Web technologies.
Job Titles:
- Chief Technologist at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center
Mark Weiser is the Chief Technologist at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. He was assistant and Associate Professor and Associate Chair in the Computer Science Department at the University of Maryland, before joining Xerox as a member of the technical staff and eventually heading the Computer Science Laboratory. Widely known for what has been called "ubiquitous computing," Weiser is currently working on a program he initiated that envisions PCs being replaced with invisible computers in everyday objects.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor at the Department of Molecular
Dr. Hewlett is an Associate Professor at the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He has been awarded research grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Kroc Foundation. Hewlett is a founding member of the St. Albert the Great Forum on Theology and the Sciences. His interests in science and theology led to his first novel, Divine Blood, to be published by Ballantine Books in July 1998.
Job Titles:
- Distinguished Professor of Physics at Sharif University of Technology
- Head of the Department of Basic Sciences for the Academy of Sciences
Dr. Golshani is a Distinguished Professor of Physics at Sharif University of Technology in Tehran. Golshani is currently head of the Department of Basic Sciences for the Academy of Sciences of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and is a member of both the Philosophy of Science Association at Michigan State University and the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology. Golshani's other research interests include particle physics, cosmology and foundations of quantum mechanics.
Job Titles:
- Program Associate for Administration
Career Highlights: In addition to his radio career, Krasny is an author and professor of literature. His numerous awards include a Meritorious Achievement in Radio award from Media Alliance, the S. Y. Agnon Award for Intellectual Distinction from Hebrew University, Human Rights Coverage award from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and the George Knox Award in Journalism.
Dr. Nardi is an anthropologist at Agilent Technologies in the Experiment Management Project in the BioScience Information Solutions Department in Agilent Laboratories. Her current research investigates the work practices of molecular biologists. Dr. Nardi has worked in industry since 1984, studying the use of technology in offices, hospitals, schools and libraries. Her theoretical orientation is activity theory, a philosophical framework developed by the Russian psychologists Vygotsky, Luria, Leont'ev and their students. Her interests are collaborative work, theoretical approaches to technology design and evaluation, and understanding how technology affects consciousness. With Vicki O'Day, she co-authored Information Ecologies: Using Technology with Heart (MIT Press, 1999). They try to find a middle ground between technophilia and technophobia. Based on many years of empirical research, they believe there are ways for people to use technology critically and responsibly. She has also applied some of the information ecologies ideas to a consideration of the future of nanotechnology.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science
N. Balakrishnan is currently a Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science. He was responsible for the creation of the Centre for Microprocessor Applications, The National Centre for Science Information, and the Supercomputer Education & Research Centre at the Indian Institute of Science. Presently, Balakrishnan is the Chairman of the Division of Information Sciences and Services. His areas of research include Numerical Electromagnetics, Polarimetric Radars and Aerospace Electronic Systems. In 2002 he was awarded the Padmashree by the President of India. He is also the National Coordinator of the Indo-French Cyber University and the Indo-US Digital Library Project.
Job Titles:
- Director of Raman Research Institute
- Research Institute
N. Kumar is the Director of Raman Research Institute. He has made substantial contributions in the field of Condensed Matter Physics specifically in the area of classical and quantum transport in disordered systems, phrase transition, and superconductivity.
With a Ph.D. in Acoustics, P. G. Vaidya has worked at Lockheed, Boeing and NASA. His research interests are Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos, Nonlinear Signal Processing, Image Processing, Speaker Identification and Modeling of ECG and Cancer.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Philosophy at Jadavpur University
P. K. Mukhopadhyay is professor of Philosophy at Jadavpur University, Calcutta. His is a National Fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla. His fields of interest include Indian systems of philosophy, particularly Nyaya Philosophy, Philosophical Logic and Philosophy of Science.
P. Rama Rao is presently ISRO Dr. Brahm Prakash Distinguished Professor. His areas of specialization are Deformation & fracture and Alloy Development. He is President of the Indian National Academy of Engineering and Vice-President of the International Union of Materials Research Societies. He is a Foreign Member, Royal Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of Ukrainian Academy of Sciences and of the Third World Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Rudd is a Senior Research Fellow working at the Glycobiology Institute in the Department of Biochemistry in the University of Oxford. Her research deals with problems associated with diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and hepatitis B. Pauline is also an associate of the Community of St Mary the Virgin in Wantage, Oxfordshire, and feels it is essential to integrate insights from the fields of science and religion in order to achieve maturity in either.
Job Titles:
- Science and the Spiritual Quest Investigators
Philip Clayton holds a Ph.D. in both Philosophy of Science and Religious Studies from Yale University. He has taught at Haverford and Williams Colleges, at the California State University, at the University of Munich (holding Humboldt and Fulbright Professorships), at Harvard Divinity School, and is currently Ingraham Chair at the Claremont School of Theology and Professor of Philosophy at the Claremont Graduate University. Clayton is author of The Problem of God in Modern Thought; God and Contemporary Science; and Explanation from Physics to Theology: An Essay in Rationality and Religion, along with a number of edited volumes, including, Quantum Mechanics: The Problem of Divine Action, Evolutionary Ethics: Human Morality in Biological and Religious Perspective, In Whom We Live and Move and Have Our Being: Panentheism and Science, and Science and the Spiritual Quest. He has published some 50 articles in the philosophy of science, metaphysics and theology. He won the Templeton Prize for Outstanding Books in Science and Religion and the first annual Templeton Grant for Research and Writing on the Constructive Interaction of the Sciences and Religion. From 1999-2003, Dr. Clayton served as Principal Investigator of the Science and the Spiritual Quest program at the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences.
Job Titles:
- General Secretary of the Academy of Technology
Dr. Perrier is the General Secretary of the Academy of Technology, he is also a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences. His scientific and technical work has been dedicated to modeling with calculus. He is the author of numerous publications in the domain of fluid mechanics especially concerning turbulence and computational analysis. He has also great interest in modeling of language and conducts research on languages of the first century.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Founder
- Co - Editor, Theology and Science
- Director, Ex Officio
- Founder and Director / Co - Editor, Theology and Science Journal
For a detailed discussion, see Dr. Robert Russell's "Bridging Science and Religion: Why it Must Be Done." Though Dr. Russell wrote this text in 1981 we believe it is still a valuable brief overview of the reasons for the founding of CTNS --- reasons which are remarkably compelling even today.
Job Titles:
- Co - Editor, Theology and Science Journal / Professor of Systematic Theology, Emeritus, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and Graduate Theological Union
- Co - Editor, Theology and Science, Professor of Systematic Theology, Emeritus, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and Graduate Theological Union
- Professor of Systematic Theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary
- Professor of Systematic Theology, Emeritus, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, Berkeley
Ted Peters is Professor of Systematic Theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary and the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) in Berkeley, California, USA, and he directs the Science and Religion Course Program at the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences at the GTU. He is editor of Dialog, a Journal of Theology, and the author of God-The World's Future (Fortress 1992); For the Love of Children; Genetic Technology and the Future of the Family (Westminster/John Knox 1996); and Playing God? Genetic Determinism and Human Freedom (Routledge 1997). He edited Genetics; Issues of Social Justice (Pilgrim 1998) and Science and Theology; The New Consonance (Westview 1998).
R. L. Kapur is currently the J.R.D. Tata Visiting Professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies at Bangalore. Previously he had been a Professor of Psychiatry and Deputy Director of the Institute. His research interests lie mainly in the field of social and cultural psychiatry. He has spent the last several years examining principles in mental health care enunciated in the old Indian scriptures as well as in Indian philosophy texts. He has carried out experiential research in yoga and has studied the sadhus and sanyasis living in the Himalayas.
Job Titles:
- Chairman in Health Sciences at Yeshiva University
After a career in information technology, Malhotra started The Infinity Foundation in 1995 and left the for-profit world. The Foundation's vision is to encourage multiculturalism and globalization in which non-Western civilizations are given equal respect, including their native knowledge representation systems. Maholtra's research interests are in Westology, Indology, Indic traditions and science and dharma.
Raymond Y. Chiao was born October 9, 1940 in Hong Kong. He received his B.A. from Princeton University in 1961. After receiving his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1965 he accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Physics, M.I.T. for two years. Dr. Chiao has been teaching at Berkeley since 1967. He was a Sloan Fellow and is presently a fellow of the American Physical Society and a fellow of the Optical Society of America. His current research interests are Nonlinear and quantum optics, including experiments on faster-than-light optical phenomena. He lives in Oakland, California with his wife and three daughters.
Job Titles:
- Chairman, the Kuhn Foundation Executive Producer, Closer to Truth: Cosmos, Consciousness, God
Job Titles:
- Materials Research Lab, Pennsylvania State University
- Materials Scientist at Pennsylvania State University
Rustum Roy is a leading materials scientist at Pennsylvania State University. He was raised a Christian in his native India. Rustum Roy has wide-ranging interests in crystal chemistry and mineral synthesis. His recent work has focused on radwaste composites, chemical vapor deposition of diamonds, and diphasic gels. Roy was the prime mover in the Science, Technology, and Society (STS) movement, and recently authored The Interdisciplinary Imperative: Interactive Research and Education, Still an Elusive Goal in Academia. He has also been intensely involved in reforming religious institutions, locally, nationally, and worldwide towards greater inclusivity, becoming spokesman for a "radical pluralist" integration among the world's religions and cultures.
Well versed in ancient and modern Indian languages and acquainted with Tibetan and European languages, S. K. Ramachandra Rao has written extensively on Vedanta, Buddhism, Jainism, Indian Culture, Art and Literature. He is presently the Senior Associate of NIAS and has taught and headed Clinical Psychology in the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Bangalore.
S. Settar's fields of research include Indian archaeology, history, art history, history of religions, philosophy and classical literature. He is formerly Professor of History and Archaeology, Director of the Institute of Indian Art History and Chairman of Indian Council of Historical Research.
Sam Berry was professor of Genetics in the University of London 1974-2000, researching the ecological genetics of mice, moths, mollusks, etc. in many parts of the world (including Enewetak Atoll, Hawaii, Peru, Kerala, and many of the North Atlantic islands). He has served as President of the Linnaean Society (the oldest biological society in the world), the British Ecological Society, the European Ecological Federation, the Mammal Society, and Christians in Science. Besides scientific publications, he is the author of God and Evolution, God and the Biologist, and (with Malcolm Jeeves) Science, Life and Christian Belief, and the editor of Real Science, Real Faith and The Care of Creation. He gave the Gifford Lectures at the University of Glasgow in 1997-1998. In 1996 he was awarded the Templeton UK Prize "for long and distinguished advocacy of the Christian faith among scientists.
Sangeetha Menon is a philosopher with an undergraduate degree in zoology. She has been working as Associate Fellow, Culture, Cognition and Consciousness Unit at NIAS 1996. She has been working in the area of consciousness and has spoken nationally and internationally. Her research interests include Indian ways of thinking in classical philosophical schools, Indian psychology and Indian dramaturgy in the current discussions on consciousness.
Sharada Srinivasan is a DST-SERC Young Scientist Awardee at NIAS in the field of Archaeomettalurgy and Archaeomaterials. She has been pupil of Bharata Natyam, or classical Indian dance.
Job Titles:
- President, Center of Life Science and Society / Mitsubishi
Dr. Yonemoto graduated from the Faculty of Science, Kyoto University with a major in biology. His current specialties are History and Philosophy of Science. He has held the position of President of the Center of Life Science and Society since 1999. Dr. Yonemoto has published extensively on bioethics and global environment. He is a member of the Industrial Structure Council Global Environment Sub-committee, visiting researcher at Tsukuba Advanced Research Alliance, and visiting professor at the Faculty of Medicine, Shinshu University. He has also served as Councilor of the Provisional Commission for the Study on Brain Death and Organ Transplant. He is very much in demand as a lecturer at conferences and forums. He was a member of the Bhutan Academic Investigation Team of Kyoto University in 1969, and a member of the Kyoto University Himalayan Medical Science Mountaineering Team.
Job Titles:
- Director, International House / the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research
Dr. Yamamoto was born on Aug. 11, 1931 in Tokyo, Japan. He graduated from Yale University with a BS in physics, and received a PhD in experimental nuclear physics from Yale in 1959. After six years at Brookhaven National Laboratory he became a professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. In 1970 he returned to Japan to successive professorships at the University of Tokyo, Kanagawa University, and Sophia University. Dr. Yamamoto is currently part-time Director of International House, RIKEN (Institute of Physical and Chemical Research), Wako-shi, Saitama-ken, Japan. His research is in the field of strong interaction searching for new particles as well as the mechanism of particle production, and of weak interaction studying the decay mechanism of particles and searching for rare decays of neutral K long mesons. Active in the Episcopal Church since 1954, Dr. Yamamoto has in recent years had been drawn to Roman Catholicism and was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1997.
Trained in physics and psychology, Sundar Sarukkai works in areas of philosophy of science, philosophy of mathematics, phenomenology and postmodernism. He is a Fellow at NIAS, and is author of Translating the World; Science and Language (2002) and Philosophy of Symmetry (pending).
Job Titles:
- Chairman, Graduate Theological Union Board of Trustees
Respected in both America and India as an accomplished teacher of Vedanta and meditation, at an early age Swami Bodhananda Sarasvati felt a spiritual calling, readily took spiritual tapas, and, with a deep sense of compassion, vowed to help humanity. He graduated from Christ College in Kerala in economics and after years traveling in the Himalayas he joined the Sarasvati order. He is the author of several books: Meditation: The Awakening of Inner Powers, The Gita and Management, Rishi Vision and Self Unfoldment in An Interactive World.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor at Boston University
Terrence Deacon is Associate Professor at Boston University and a Harvard University Ph.D. He teaches courses in Biological Anthropology and in the Neurosciences at Boston University. He taught at Harvard University from 1984 to 1992, at Boston University from 1992 to present, and was a research associate at Harvard Medical School from 1992 to 1999. Professor Deacon's research focuses on the evolution of the brain. He is best known for his work on the evolution of language abilities and the human brain. His book The Symbolic Species (W.W. Norton, 1997) summarizes this research and its implications. His neurobiological research has also utilized cross-species transplantation of embryonic brain tissue to study the evolution and development of brains. This work has contributed to fetal cell and stem cell replacement treatments for brain damage. He is science advisor for IRAS and is currently completing a new book "Homunculus" about evolution and consciousness.
Job Titles:
- Director - General, the Earth Simulator Center, Japan Marine Science and Technology Center ( JAMSTEC )
- Professor, Director - General, the Earth Simulator Center, Japan Marine Science and Technology Center ( JAMSTEC )
Dr. Sato graduated from the Department of Electronics, Faculty of Engineering, Kyoto University in 1963. After working as assistant professor in the Faculty of Science, Kyoto University, he became associate professor in 1974 and Professor of Hiroshima University in 1980. He was professor at the National Institute for Fusion Science since 1989, and has served as the Director of Theory and Computer Simulation Center. Since 2002, he has been The Director-General of The Earth Simulator Center, Japan Marine Science and Technology Center. He is a recipient of the 1975 Tanakadate Award and the 1986 Nishina Memorial Award.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Quantum Physics at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure Des Mines of Saint - Etienne
Dr. Magnin is a professor of Quantum Physics at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines of Saint-Etienne in France and director of a research laboratory in physics of materials (URA CNRS). A specialist of physics of solids, he has published over 200 articles and 5 books in that area. Dr. Magnin holds PhDs in science and theology with a thesis on the relationship between Science and Theology. He is also a priest and the author of several books on the relationship between science and faith, including Between Science and Religion and What God for a Scientific World? and over 30 articles in this area.
Job Titles:
- Director of the National Institute of Advanced Studies
V. Nanjundiah is Director of the National Institute of Advanced Studies and Chairman of the Fluid Dynamics Unit at the Jawaharlal Nehru Center for Advanced Scientific Research. His research has been chiefly concerned with fluid dynamics and related atmospheric problems. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences and of Engineering. He has taught at Caltech, Cambridge and other universities.
A renowned cardiologist in Morocco, Wajih Maazouzi was head of the Moroccan team who managed the first heart transplantation, and first graft from a dead body in Morocco. Furthermore, Prof. Maazouzi obtained a PhD in Law in 1988. He is member, founding-member, and president of a number of cardiology associations in Morocco and abroad. He is author of several works particularly in the medical field, and is presently director of the University Hospital in Rabat (Morocco) and a personal advisor to the Minister of Public Health.
Job Titles:
- Vatican Observatory Research Group
- Vatican Observatory Research Group, University of Arizona
Dr. Stoeger is a Jesuit priest widely known for his work in theology and science. He is Adjunct Associate Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona, and Staff Astronomer for the Vatican observatory. Stoeger's recent research has focused on projects in theoretical cosmology, with an eye on building more adequate connections between theory and cosmologically relevant astronomical observations and observations of the microwave background radiation.
Job Titles:
- Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Dr. Newsome is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Professor of Neurobiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He received a B.S. degree, summa cum laude, in physics from Stetson University and a Ph.D. in biology from the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Newsome served on the faculty of the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at SUNY Stony Brook before moving to Stanford in 1988. Dr. Newsome is a leading investigator in the fields of sensory and cognitive neuroscience. He has made fundamental contributions to our understanding of how the primate brain mediates visual perception, and is currently attempting to unravel the neural mechanisms underlying simple decision processes within the cerebral cortex. Among his honors are the Rank Prize in Optoelectronics, the Spencer Award for highly original contributions to research in neurobiology from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, and two Kaiser Awards for excellence in teaching from the students of the Stanford University School of Medicine. He recently delivered the 13th Annual Marr Lecture at the University of Cambridge and the King Solomon Lectures in Mechanisms of Animal Behavior at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In 2000, he was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences.