Jesuits and the Sciences Conference

“Jesuits and the Sciences: Putting Faith and the Sciences Together” is the title of the next institute sponsored by the National Jesuit Brothers Committee. The institute will be held June 18-23, 2011 at the Manresa Center, a facility owned and operated by St. Louis University. Speakers for the institute include:

Guy Consolmagno (MAR) - "Vatican Observatory"

Brother Guy Consolmagno SJ was born in Detroit, Michigan, earned undergraduate and masters’ degrees in Earth and Planetary Sciences from MIT (in 1974 and 1975), and a Ph. D. in Planetary Science from the University of Arizona in 1978. He worked as a post-doctoral fellow and lecturer at Harvard University’s Department of Astronomy, and MIT’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences; served in the US Peace Corps (Kenya); and was a Physics professor at Lafayette College, before entering the Jesuits as a brother in 1989.

At the Vatican Observatory since 1993, his research explores connections between meteorites, asteroids, and the evolution of small solar system bodies, observing Kuiper Belt comets with the Vatican's 1.8 meter telescope in Arizona, and curating the Vatican meteorite collection. Dr. Consolmagno’s work has taken him, literally, around the world to every continent; in 1996, he spent six weeks collecting meteorites with a team on the blue ice regions of East Antarctica. He has served on the governing boards of the Meteoritical Society; the American Astronomical Society Division for Planetary Sciences (which he chaired in 2006-2007); and the International Astronomical Union (IAU), where he has served as an officer in Division III, Planetary Systems Science and Commission 16, Planets and Satellites. In 2000, the small bodies nomenclature committee of the IAU named an asteroid, 4597 Consolmagno, in recognition of his work.

Along with more than 200 scientific publications, he is the author of a number of books. With Dan Davis he co-authored a guide for amateur astronomers, Turn Left at Orion, which is Cambridge University Press’s best selling astronomy book, with more than 100,000 copies. Other books include The Way to the Dwelling of Light; Brother Astronomer; God’s Mechanics; The Heavens Proclaim (editor); and Worlds Apart, A Textbook in Planetary Sciences (with Martha Schaefer). He also writes a monthly science column for the British weekly The Tablet. He appears on occasion as a science presenter on BBC Radio 4, and has been a guest on The Colbert Report. Since entering the Jesuits he has taught astronomy and physics at Loyola College, Maryland, and Loyola University, Chicago, and held visiting chairs for Jesuit Scholars at St. Joseph’s University, Philadelphia; Fordham University, New York; and LeMoyne College, Syracuse.