Science and Religion in Context | June 5 - 9, 2004
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Confirmed Speakers

Dennis Cheek, John Templeton Foundation

Hyung Choi, Metanexus Institute

Ronald Cole-Turner, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

Edward Devinney, Jr., Villanova University

George F. R. Ellis, University of Cape Town

Leigh English, Monsanto, St. Louis, MO

George Fisher, Johns Hopkins University

William Grassie, Metanexus Institute

John Haught, Georgetown University

Philip Hefner, Professor Emeritus, Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago

Ralph W. Hood, Jr., University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

David Hufford, Penn State University and University of Pennsylvania

Leonard M. Hummel, Vanderbilt University Divinity School

Gail Ironson, University of Miami

Antje Jackelén, Lutheran School of Theology

Solomon Katz, University of Pennsylvania

Joan Koss-Chioino, Arizona State University

J.R. McNeill, Georgetown University

Mary Ann Meyers, John Templeton Foundation

Marc Micozzi, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital

Craig Miller, Jewish Community Relations Council of New York

James Miller, AAAS

Frank Pennington, United Church of Christ, Valley Forge

Andrew Petto, National Center for Science Education

Varadaraja V. Raman, Professor Emeritus, Rochester Institute of Technology

Mark Richardson, General Theological Seminary

Andrew Rick-Miller, Metanexus Institute

T. D. Singh, Thoudam Damodara Singh

Mary Evelyn Tucker, Bucknell University

J. Wentzel van Huyssteen, Princeton Theological Seminary

Paul Wason, John Templeton Foundation

Paul Root Wolpe, University of Pennsylvania

Speaker Biographies

Cheek, Dennis
Dr. Dennis Cheek joined the John Templeton Foundation in the fall of 2002 as Vice President for Venture Philanthropy Innovation and as Managing Director of Templeton Venture Philanthropy Associates. His work at the Foundation focuses principally on developing and delivering high-quality venture philanthropy services to the Foundation, grantees and nonprofit organizations to influence and leverage donor investments worldwide.

Following an early career as a science and social studies teacher in private and public schools in the United States and Germany, and as a religious education instructor in Great Britain, Dr. Cheek served in a variety of supervisory positions at the New York and Rhode Island state departments of education. His responsibilities included the development of science and social studies curriculum materials, statewide assessment systems, educational accountability systems, management information systems, high school reform, school libraries, school counseling, career and technical education and adult basic and GED education. His Thinking Constructively about Science, Technology and Society Education (SUNY Press, 1992) introduced a groundbreaking new framework on the subject. He also made significant contributions to state level accountability systems.

Dr. Cheek has served on various ad-hoc and standing committees of professional associations including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Educational Research Association, Kappa Delta Pi, National Association for Science, Technology and Society and the National Science Teachers Association. He served as a senior consultant for many years at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). Dr. Cheek is a founding member of the Steering Group of the international Campbell Collaboration and Chair of its Communications and Globalization Group. He has contributed to or edited hundreds of publications.

Dr. Cheek earned a B.A. in history from Towson State University, a B.S. in biology from Regents College (now Excelsior College) of the University of the State of New York, an M.A. in historical studies from the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction/science education from Pennsylvania State University. He is completing a second Ph.D. in theology at the University of Durham, England. An ordained minister for the past thirty years, Dr. Cheek has served churches and religious organizations worldwide as a pastor and teacher.

Choi, Hyung
Hyung S. Choi, Ph.D., is Director for Research and Programs in the Natural Sciences at the Metanexus Institute. He is also a Visiting Fellow at St. Edmund's College, Cambridge University. He was a Witherspoon Fellow at the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences in Berkeley and the founding director of the Canyon Institute for Advanced Studies in Phoenix. Dr. Choi received both his M.Phil. and his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the Graduate Center of CUNY and his M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary. Professor Choi is a recipient of many awards for his research and teaching. His areas of expertise include quantum measurement theory, quantum optics and the interdisciplinary area between science and religion. Having recently completed the Bibliography for Ultimate Reality project supported by the John Templeton Foundation, he is currently writing a book entitled Knowledge of the Unseen: Probing Deeper Realities.

Cole-Turner, Ronald
Dr Ronald Cole-Turner is the H. Parker Sharp Professor of Theology and Ethics at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, a position that relates theology and ethics to developments in science and technology. He is an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ and chairs the UCC committee on genetics. He serves on the Advisory Board (Executive Committee) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Program of Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion. Dr. Cole-Turner is the author of The New Genesis: Theology and the Genetic Revolution (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1993) and coauthor (with Brent Waters) of Pastoral Genetics: Theology and Care at the Beginning of Life (Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press, 1996). He is the editor of Human Cloning: Religious Responses (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997) and has written numerous articles. In 1998, he won one of 12 international awards for "Quality and Excellence in Teaching" from the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences.

Devinney, Edward
Edward J. Devinney, Jr. received a B.A. in Physics from LaSalle University and a Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astrophysics from the University of Pennsylvania. His astronomical interests include instrumentation, observational aspects of solar eclipses and binary stars, including black hole binaries. He is widely known for the "Wilson/Devinney" computer code for binary star light-curve analysis used by scores of astronomers, which enjoys over 700 literature citations. His ten-year academic career in the Florida university system included two years as a National Academy of Sciences Senior Postdoctoral Fellow at NASA Goddard Space Center. A subsequent industry career included nine years with Siemens US research labs as Department Head, Artificial Intelligence and Chief Scientist. He spun out a high-technology company from Siemens and served seven years as CEO. Currently, he is Visiting Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Villanova University. His long interest in philosophy and religion stems from his undergraduate education, which included minors in both topics. He is also strongly interested in the philosophy of science. He is an inveterate fan of cultures, music and language, and aspires to be a Renaissance Person in his next life.

Ellis, George
George F. R. Ellis, FRAS, is professor of applied mathematics at the University of Cape Town. After completing his Ph.D. at Cambridge University with Dennis Sciama as supervisor, he lectured at Cambridge and has been visiting professor at Texas University, the University of Chicago, Hamburg University, Boston University, the University of Alberta, and Queen Mary College (London University). He has written many papers on relativity theory and cosmology, and inter alia co-authored The Large Scale Structure of Space Time with Stephen Hawking, The Density of Matter in the Universe with Peter Coles, and Dynamical Systems in Cosmology with John Wainwright as well as Before the Beginning. He has also written on science policy and developmental issues, science education, and science and religion issues, and was co-author with Nancey Murphy of On the Moral Nature of the Universe. He is past president of the International Society of General Relativity and Gravitation and of the Royal Society of South Africa. He has been awarded various prizes and honorary degrees and was awarded the Star of South Africa Medal by President Nelson Mandela in 1999. His most recent book is The Far-Future Universe: Eschatology from a Cosmic Perspective.

English, Leigh
Leigh English, Ph.D. is Director of the Monsanto Protein Science Team. This team is responsible for a broad set of activities including a focus on the discovery, design and stewardship of the proteins in Monsantos insect control products, BollgardTM and YieldgardTM , and RoundupReady TM products. In addition, his team identifies areas where protein-based skills and information are needed, and provides the necessary assistance to meet those needs. The skills within the team include protein isolation, purification, crystallization, X-Ray crystallography, protein design and engineering, protein folding, membrane biophysics, and insect and plant physiology.

Dr. English is a graduate of Cornell University, Harvard University, and North Dakota State University. He completed his postdoctoral research at Harvard University Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology as an NIH Fellow of the Department of Red Cell Diseases. He was a non-tenure tack faculty member in the Department of Physiology of the Tufts University School of Medicine specializing in membrane biochemistry, physiology and biophysics of red cell differentiation. He has been with Monsanto since 1998 where he led the plant disease projects, insect control discovery projects, and been the Program Director for Plant Protection. He was also the Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of Ecogen Inc.

A Unitarian Universalist, he has a religious history that includes years with the Presbyterian Church, the Lutheran Church, the United Methodist Church, and the Religious Society of Friends. He has been an educator in all of these denominations. He is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School (MTS 1982), and remains an avid reader, teacher and preacher. He is particularly interested in issues related to the implementation of scientific and religious information in decision-making and the creation of jobs. He is an amateur athlete, registered Judo coach, instructor and referee. He lives in St. Louis with his wife, two teen-age children, one dog, and one bird.

Fisher, George
George Fisher has studied geology at Dartmouth College (A.B, 1959) and Johns Hopkins University (Ph.D., 1963) and theology at St. Mary's Seminary (M.A, 2002). He has taught in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins University since 1966, and served as Dean of Arts and Sciences from 1983 to 1987. This year he will become Director of Hopkins' Institute for Global Studies of Culture, Power, and History. In the last decade, his interests have shifted from geology to the study of human interactions with Earth in their scientific, social, and religious dimensions, and to philosophical and religious ways of understanding the place of humans in the natural system. Recent publications include: Fisher, G. W., 2000, Sustainable Living: Common Ground for Geology and Theology; in The Earth Around Us: Maintaining a Livable Planet, Jill Schneiderman, ed., W. H. Freeman and Company, p. 99-111. Fisher, G. W., 2001, "A Livable Future: Linking Geology and Theology," in Kellert, Steven, ed. The Good in Nature and Humanity: Connecting Science, Religion, and the Natural World, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, p. 113-122. Fisher, G. W., 2002, "Sustainable Human Development: Connecting the Scientific and Moral Dimensions," in Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems, UNESCO " EOLSS, Geneva, CH.

Grassie, William
William "Billy" Grassie, Ph.D. is founder and executive director, Metanexus Institute on Religion and Science <www.metanexus.net>. Grassie also serves as executive editor of the Institute's online magazine and discussion forum with over 40,000 weekly page views and over 6000 regular subscribers in 57 different countries. He has taught in a variety of positions at Temple University, Swarthmore College, and the University of Pennsylvania. Grassie received his doctorate in religion from Temple University in 1994 and his BA from Middlebury College in 1979. Prior to graduate school, Grassie worked for ten years in religiously-based social service and advocacy organizations in Washington, D.C; Jerusalem, Israel; Berlin, Germany; and Philadelphia, PA. He is the recipient of a number of academic awards and grants from the American Friends Service Committee, the Roothbert Fellowship, and the John Templeton Foundation. He is a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).

Haught, John
John F. Haught is Thomas Healey Professor of Theology at Georgetown University. His area of specialization is systematic theology, witha particular interest in issues pertaining to science, cosmology, ecology, and religion. He is the author of Deeper Than Darwin: Evolution and the Question of God (Westview, 2003); Responses to 101 Questions on God and Evolution (Paulist Press, 2001); God After Darwin: A theology of Evolution (Westview Press, 2000); Science and Religion: From Conflict to Conversation (Paulist Press, 1995); The Promise of Nature: Ecology and Cosmic Purpose (Paulist Press, 1993); Mystery and Promise: A Theology of Revelation (Liturgical Press, 1993); What Is Religion? (Paulist Press, 1990); The Revelation of God in History (Michael Glazier Press, 1988); What Is God? (Paulist Press, 1986); The Cosmic Adventure (Paulist Press, 1984); Nature and Purpose (University Press of America, 1980); Religion and Self-Acceptance (Paulist Press, 1976); and editor of Science and Religion in Search of Cosmic Purpose (Georgetown University Press, 2000) as well as numerous articles and reviews. He lectures often on topics related to religion and science, cosmology, theology, and ecology.

Hefner, Philip
Philip Hefner is an ordained pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and has spent his entire career teaching in Lutheran seminaries in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and since 1967 in Hyde Park, Chicago (where he retired in 2001). He has attempted to balance a concern for the theology of the Christian tradition, and of Lutheranism, with attention to contemporary culture, particularly the arts and the natural sciences. His first serious attention to religion-and-science issues began in the 1962 (having just received a Ph.D.), when he was invited to lecture on this topic at the college that was the predecessor of the present State University of New York at Oneonta. This led to more study, the establishment of a faculty dialogue group at Wittenberg University (Ohio), where he was teaching, and in 1967 to a 35 year-long association with Ralph Wendell Burhoe, the founder of Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science, co-founder of the Zygon Center for Religion and Science, and recipient of the 1980 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion (he was the first American to receive this prize). Hefner is amazed at how things have developed since then. In the 1960s, religion-and-science was Hefner’s “hobby,” and it was received as such by his peers. The field had never been his sole vocation, but it could have easily become that. Hefner served a the director of thr Zygon Center from 1988-2003.

Hefner’s bibliography of published writings includes 6 books and more than 150 scholarly articles, about half of which deal with religion and the natural sciences, while the other half deal with traditional historical and theological issues. Among his books are his dissertation, Faith and the Vitalities of History: A Theological Study Based on the Thought of Albrecht Ritschl (Harper and Row, 1966); The Promise of Teilhard (Lippincott, 1970); (with Robert Benne), Defining America: A Christian Critique of the American Dream (Fortress Press, 1974); The Human Factor: Evolution, Culture, Religion (Fortress Press, 1993); Natur-Weltbild-eligion (Institut Technik-Theologie-Naturwissenschaften; Verlag Evangelischer Presseverband fuer Bayern, 1995); and Technology and Human Becoming (Fortress Press, 2003). He also translated and edited a volume of Ritschl's shorter writings, Three Essays by Albrecht Ritschl (Fortress Press, 1972). He contributed two essays ("Creation" and "Church") to the two-volume work, Christian Dogmatics (eds., Carl Braaten and Robert Jenson; Fortress Press, 1984) His 2002 Rockwell lectures, delivered at Rice University, on the theme of the “Created Co-Creator,” will be published by Trinity International Press.

Hefner has held several dozen visiting teaching and lecturing appointments at seminaries, colleges, and universities in the United States, Europe, Africa, and Asia. He also represented his church on a number of ecumenical commissions, including, most recently, the dialogue commission between the Lutheran World Federation and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and as a member of the U. S. A. Lutheran-Reformed Coordinating Committee.

Hood, Ralph
Dr. Hood is Professor of Psychology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He has a long standing interest in the empirical study of religion. His research has focused upon religious experience, especially mystical experience. In addition he continues extensive field work on the serpent handling holiness sects of Appalachia He is a past president of the Psychology of Religion division of APA and a recipient of the William James award from that division. He was involved in the creation of the International Journal for the Psychology of Religion. He served as Book Review Editor and also as Co-editor. He is a past editor of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. He is currently a board member of the Internationalle Gesellschaft Für Religionpsychologie. Recent books include two edited volumes published by Religious Education Press: Handbook of Religious Experience and Measures of Religiosity (with Peter Hill). Dimension of Mystical Experiences has just been published by Rodopi. Currently he is completing a third edition of The Psychology of Religion: An Empirical Approach (with Bernie Spilka and Bruce Hunsberger) to be published by Guilford Press.

Hufford, David
David Hufford, Ph.D., is Director of the Doctors Kienle Center for Humanistic Medicine, Interim Chair and Professor of Medical Humanities, and Professor of Family and Community Medicine at Penn State College of Medicine. At the University of Pennsylvania he is Adjunct Professor of Religious Studies and a faculty member of the Master in Bioethics Program. Dr. Hufford has taught about religion, spirituality and health at the College of Medicine since 1974. He won a Templeton Foundation Faith & Medicine Award in 1995, the first year of that program to support religion and health courses in medical schools, and he has taught that course to fourth-year medical students since that time. At Penn he has taught courses in spiritual belief and in alternative medicine since 1979, and currently leads an initiative to develop a Center for Spirituality, Religion and Health at Penn, connecting the School of Medicine and the School of Arts & Sciences.

Hummel, Leonard
Leonard M. Hummel is Assistant Professor of Pastoral Counseling and Pastoral Theology at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. Professor Hummel's research interests include Pietism and Practical Theology, Community Psychology, consolation for suffering within the Lutheran tradition, and research methods in pastoral theology. He teaches courses in the following areas: Religion and Coping, Pastoral Care for Addictions and Mental Disorders, Health and Salvation, Practical Theology and Historical Theology. An ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Professor Hummel is advisor to Lutheran students at the Divinity School. He is a recipient of a Spiritual Transformation Scientific Research grant.

Ironson, Gail
Dr. Ironson is Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Miami. Dr. Ironson specializes in Behavioral Medicine and served as the President of the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research. After receiving her doctorate in quantitative psychology from the University of Wisconsin she pursued her medical degree from the University of Miami, with a psychiatry residency at Stanford University. As a recognized expert in her field, she is a Fellow in the Society of Behavioral Medicine and Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, as well as sitting on the Editorial Boards of several journals. She has conducted extensive research in the areas of behavioral medicine with HIV, cancer, and cardiac patients, and has published over 100 articles and chapters in peer-reviewed publications.

Jackélen, Antje
Reverend Dr. Antje Jackelén is associate professor of systematic theology/religion and science at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and is director of the Zygon Center for Religion and Science in Chicago. She studied theology in Bielefeld-Bethel and Tübingen, Germany, and Uppsala, Sweden. Ordained for the ministry in the Church of Sweden in 1980, she has held positions in parish ministry and participated in the continued education of priests and the training of ordinands. She received her Ph.D. in systematic theology from Lund University, Sweden in 1999. Dr. Jackelén has been a member of the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology (ESSSAT) since it began in 1990. She has served as the ESSSAT secretary, as member of the organizing committees for several European Conferences on Science and Theology, and as editor of ESSSAT-News. She is currently a council member of ESSSAT. From 1999-2001, she served as regional director for Europe of the Science and Religion Course Program of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, Berkeley, California. Her publications include books in German and Swedish as well as numerous articles in theology and religion-and-science issues. Her most recent book is entitled Time and Eternity: The Concept of Time in Church, Natural Sciences and Theology (2002) [published in German, English translation forthcoming.]

Katz, Solomon
Dr. Solomon Katz is President of the Metanexus Institute, Director of the Krogman Center for Research in Child Growth and Development, and Professor of Physical Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. His work in science and religion spans over 30 years, including leadership in the Institute for Religion in an Age of Science (IRAS), where he served as president, 1977 to 1979 and 1981 to 1984. He has served as co-chair and associate editor of the Zygon Publication Board and Journal since 1979. Dr. Katz was president of the Center for the Advanced Study of Religion and Science from 1989-2002 and served on the advisory board of the Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion of the AAAS. Dr. Katz has edited numerous books and series on the anthropology of food and nutrition and most recently served as editor-in-chief of the award winning international 3-volume Encyclopedia of Food and Culture, published by Scribners in 2003.

Koss-Chioino, Joan
Joan D. Koss-Chioino, Ph.D. is Professor Anthropology and affiliate of the Women's Studies Department at Arizona State University. She is also Research Professor at George Washington University, Washington Program for Ethnographic Research Training in HIV/AIDS, substance abuse and violence, a NIDA-funded, postdoctoral training grant. Dr. Koss developed a Program in Medical Anthropology at A.S.U. and continues to work at the interface between anthropology, psychiatry and psychology. Her primary research interests are the treatment of illness and emotional disorders, and the maintenance of well-being both of which include spirituality and spiritual transformation. Her studies include traditional, alternative and psychotherapeutic treatments in Latino cultures in the U.S., Latin America, Spain and Thailand. Currently she is completing analyses of a family and group treatment outcome study with Mexican American youths and families in Arizona, and has recently begun a study of emotion regulation among women in Andalusia, Spain. Among her publications are: Women as Healers, Women as Patients: Mental Health Care and Traditional Healing in Puerto Rico (Westview Press, 1992), Working With Culture: Psychotherapeutic Interventions with Ethnic Minority Children and Adolescents, editor, with Luis A. Vargas (Jossey Bass, 1992) and Working With Latino Youth: Culture: Development and Context (1999), with Luis A. Vargas as coauthor.

McNeill, J.R.
John R. McNeill, Ph.D. is professor of history at Georgetown University and Cinco Hermanos Chair of Environment and International Affairs at the University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. A graduate of Swarthmore College, he received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Duke University. He has taught at Goucher College and Duke University before coming to Georgetown in 1985. He is the author of many books and articles among them The Mountains of the Mediterranean World: An Environmental History (Cambridge University Press, 1992); Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the 20th -century World (Norton, 2000); The Human Web: A Birds Eye View of World History (Norton, 2003) with W. H. McNeill; and Encyclopedia of World Environmental History (New York: Routledge, 2003) co-edited with Sheperd Krech and Carolyn Merchant. Dr. McNeill is the recipient of multiple grants and awards including two Fulbright research grant, and Guggenheim and MacArthur fellowships.

Meyers, Mary Ann
Mary Ann Meyers, Ph.D. is a writer and the Senior Fellow at the John
Templeton Foundation. For more than a decade she served as Secretary of the University of Pennsylvania, where throughout her tenure she taught an American civilization course in the History of Religion in America. She was subsequently President of The Annenberg Foundation and Vice President for External Affairs at Moore College of Art and Design. Earlier in her career, she was an assistant to Penn¹s President (and now President Emeritus) Martin Meyerson. She also served as Director of College Relations at Haverford
College, where she taught in the Freshman Seminar Program and edited the college¹s alumni magazine.

Dr. Meyers is the author of Art, Education and African-American Culture:
Albert Barnes and the Science of Philanthropy (2004), A New World Jerusalem: The Swedenborgian Experience in Community Construction (1983), a co-author of Religion in American Life (1987), Coping With Serious Illness (1977), and Death in America (1975), as well as contributor to Gladly Learn and Gladly Teach: Franklin and His Heirs at the University of Pennsylvania (1978). Her work has appeared in academic journals, general-interest magazines, and newspapers. For many years, she was a contributing editor of The Pennsylvania Gazette. Her articles for the Penn alumni magazine won a variety of prizes, including the Newsweek-CASE Award for Public Affairs Reporting and a Silver Medal in the CASE Competition for the Best Article of the Year, as well as awards from Women in Communications.

Currently secretary and a director of the American Academy of Political and
Social Science, Dr. Meyers also serves as a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania Press and a member of the Board of Advisors of Penn¹s Department of Biology. She has been an overseer of the University¹s School of Arts and Sciences, a member of the Annenberg Center Board of Advisors, and a trustee of the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia among other professional and civic activities.

A magna cum laude graduate of Syracuse University, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, Dr. Meyers earned a Ph.D. in American civilization at the University of Pennsylvania. She heads the Humble Approach initiative, a Templeton program that brings together scientists, philosophers, and theologians in a series of international symposia.

Micozzi, Marc
Dr. Micozzi is currently the Executive Director of the Jefferson-Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Medicine and of Rehabilitation at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the past Executive Director of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Prior to joining the College, Dr. Micozzi was the founding Director of the National Museum of Health and Medicine and a Distinguished Scientist with the American Registry of Pathology in Washington, D.C. He is the author of Fundamentals of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, the first textbook on this subject for physicians and medical students. He was the founding editor of The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. Dr. Micozzi has worked to foster communication and cooperation between "mainstream" and alternative medicine on issues of policy research and education. Dr. Micozzi earned an M.D. (1979) and a Ph.D. in anthropology (1984) from the University of Pennsylvania. He has presented more than 120 scholarly papers at professional conferences and is the author of over 140 scientific publications. His work has appeared in a number of distinguished publications, including the New England Journal of Medicine; the American Journal of Public Health; the Journal of the National Cancer Institute; and the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Miller, Craig
Rabbi Craig Miller oversees Inter-religous Affairs and Disaster Spiritual Care for the Jewish Community Relations Council of NY (JCRC). He also serves as Campus Liaison for the JCRC and NY Board of Rabbis, of which he serves as a VP. In the campus capacity he works as the Jewish Chaplain for Baruch College. Rabbi Miller's interests focus on the relationship between science and humanity's spiritual journey as well as Mussar, the Jewish tradition dealing with wise living. These interests were focused by his experience as a Red Cross chaplain post-9/11. Over the past two years he has begun speaking and teaching Mussar and its relationship to science. Rabbi Miller, a graduate of the New School, was ordained by Beis Medrash L'Torah in Passaic and is pursuing graduate studies in science and philosophy. His greatest joy and learning comes from his wife Judi and three children. Rabbi Miller is representing the Local Societies initiative of the Torah Science Foundation, website: www.torahscience.org.

Miller, James
Jim Miller is a native of North Carolina. He received his undergraduate education at the University of Maryland where he earned a BA (1965) in American Studies after beginning his undergraduate studies in Mechanical Engineering. An ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church USA, he earned an MDiv (1968) at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia and a PhD (1986) in Theology and Society from Marquette University in Milwaukee with a focus on science and theology. His dissertation title was: Beyond Dualism: Cosmological Issues for Christian Theology in a Postmodern, Postcritical Context. For five years following seminary, Jim worked in the Department of Engineering Mechanics at North Carolina State University. He served for six years as the ecumenical Protestant campus minister at Michigan Technological University and, from 1984 until 1996, Jim was on the staff of United Campus Ministry of Pittsburgh and its Director beginning in 1987. While in Pittsburgh, Jim taught courses on "Science and Christianity," "Religions of the World's Peoples" and "Introduction to Religion" as an adjunct faculty at Carnegie Mellon University where he was instrumental in the development of the University's religious studies minor. Since August 1996 Jim has served as the Senior Program Associate for the Program of Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, DC. He is the editor of An Evolving Dialogue: Scientific, Historical, Philosophical and Theological Perspectives on Evolution (AAAS, 1998; revised edition, Trinity Press International, 2001), Cosmic Questions (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2001), and co-editor of The Church and Contemporary Cosmology (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 1989). He is a member of National Capital Presbytery. Jim was the founding Secretary/Treasurer and is the current President of the Presbyterian Association on Science, Technology and the Christian Faith. He and his wife, Kathi, have three grown children and four grandchildren.

Pennington, Frank
Reverend Frank Pennington grew up in central Pennsylvania but has spent most of his life in New York State and in the Philadelphia region. His first churches involved an Associate Pastor's position working primarily with university students on campuses in Buffalo, NY, and as Minister with a United Church of Christ congregation in the Finger Lakes Region south of Rochester. Frank is a '72 graduate of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School with a Master of Divinity Degree, and has been at The United Church of Christ at Valley Forge, Wayne, PA, since 1980. Continuing education is a priority for Frank, reflecting his active interest in the role of spirituality and the church in culture and contemporary issues, particularly the growing dialogue between religion and science. Involved at both Association and Conference levels of the wider United Church of Christ, he believes the church should be a "meeting house" for the interplay of faith, spirituality, congregational life, and issues of social consequence. Current involvements include regional cultural organizations, leadership roles in ecumenical organizations, as well as membership on the Metanexus Institute's Board of Directors. Wider interests include contemporary music, writing, film, the arts, cycling and running. In the summer, Frank enjoys climbing in the White Mountains of New Hampshire with his seventeen-year-old daughter, a student at Conestoga High School. Frank's spouse is an educator working with autistic children and children facing pervasive neurological issues.

Petto, Andrew
Andrew Petto brings a long career in science education and anthropological research to his position as Associate Professor in the Division of Liberal Arts at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. He holds a B.A. in Sociology and Anthropology with a concentration in religious studies. Petto holds a M.A. in Anthropology and a Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology. His post-doctoral studies included 2 years at the New England Regional Primate Research Center at Harvard Medical School and 1 year in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-M). Prior to coming to UArts, Dr. Petto served as the associate director of the Center for Biology Education and later as an outreach specialist in the Department of Genetics, both at the UW-M.

Dr. Petto has taught courses in anthropology, human evolution, primatology, zoology, biopsychology, human anatomy and physiology at the University of Massachusetts, the University of Calgary, Rhode Island College, Mt. Ida College, Waukesha County Technical College, UW-M, Upper Iowa University, Capri College, and Madison Area Technical College before coming to UArts in fall, 1998 to assume responsibility for the undergraduate science requirement. Dr. Petto has also taught in enrichment programs for advanced secondary students and outreach programs for pre-college teachers. He has been involved in multicultural science teaching programs and activities and has directed workshops on integrated, multidisciplinary teaching in the sciences. Since 1994, he has served on the board of directors at the National Center for Science Education and became the NCSE editor in 1995. He is currently working with Laurie R, Godfrey on a revised edition of Scientists Confront Creationism to be published by W.W. Norton in early 2003.

Raman, Varadaraja V.
Dr. Varadaraja V. Raman received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Calcutta before doing his doctoral work on the foundations of quantum mechanics at the University of Paris where he worked under Louis de Broglie. He has taught in a number of institutions, including the Saha Institute for Nuclear Physics in Calcutta, the Universite d'Alger in Algiers and the Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, from where, after serving as professor of Physics and Humanities, he has retired as Emeritus Professor. He was associated with the UNESCO as an educational expert. Dr. Raman has also devoted several years to the study and elucidation of Hindu culture and religion. He is an associate editor in the eighteen volume Encyclopedia of Hinduism Project. Dr. Raman has authored scores of papers on the historical, social, and philosophical aspects of physics/science, as well as on India's heritage, and has authored eight books including Scientific Perspectives, Glimpses of Ancient Science and Scientists, Nuggets from the Gita, and Varieties of Science History. Dr. Raman serves on the board of the Metanexus Insitute and is a regular contributor to its online magazine.

Richardson, Mark
Reverend Dr. W. Mark Richardson is Professor of Theology at the General Theological Seminary in New York and a priest in the Episcopal Church. He co-edited Religion and Science: History, Method and Dialogue, which won a 1996 Templeton Prize for Outstanding Books in Science and Religion, and Human and Divine Agency. Richardson conceived and directed the original Science and Spiritual Quest I project, which culminated in the internationally acclaimed SSQ I conference at the University of California, Berkeley in 1998. Since 1999, the Rev. Dr. Richardson has served as Co-Investigator of the Science and the Spiritual Quest II program at the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences and co-edited the SSQ volumes Faith in Science: Scientists Search for Truth and Science and the Spiritual Quest: New Essays by Leading Scientists.

Rick-Miller, Andrew
Andrew Rick-Miller is interested in building bridges between the academic dialogue on religion-and-science and clergy and faith communities. Following focused study in physics and English literature at Northwestern University , Rick-Miller attended Princeton Theological Seminary to study Christian theology with Wentzel van Huyssteen and to receive pastoral training. At Princeton , Rick-Miller focused on questions of creation with a particular interest in the theological implications of theories joining quantum mechanics and relativity – the topic of his senior thesis. Rick-Miller spent two years serving Presbyterian congregations, one in LaGrande , OR and the other in Groomsport , Northern Ireland . In working with these congregations and in his studies, Rick-Miller felt there was a glaring need for clergy and local faith communities to participate in conversations occurring between religion and science.

Rick-Miller serves as the Outreach Coordinator for the Local Societies Initiative. In his efforts to locate leaders and develop new science and religion dialogue groups, he seeks to build bridges between the academic dialogue and students, clergy, laity, and other members of the public. Rick-Miller also leads educational programs and preaches in local faith communities as well as encouraging clergy and laity to participate in ongoing Metanexus programs.

Rick-Miller is an active member of the Presbyterian Church (USA). His wife, Katherine, is a Presbyterian pastor serving a congregation in Philadelphia .

Singh, T. D.
T. D. Singh (1937-): An extraordinary combination of a scientist, a spiritualist, an active promoter of world peace, an interfaith leader, an educationist, a poet, a singer, and a cultural ambassador. He is well known for his pioneering efforts for more than thirty years to interface between science and religion for a deeper understanding of life and the universe. He received his Ph.D. in Physical Organic Chemistry from the University of California, Irvine in 1974. He has contributed many papers in the Journal of American Chemical Society and the Journal of Organic Chemistry in the field of fast proton transfer kinetics in model biological systems using stopped-flow technique and NMR spectroscopy. He also worked on gas phase reaction mechanisms using Ion Cyclotron Resonance (ICR) spectroscopy. He underwent Vaishnava Vedanta Studies (1970-77) under His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupäda and was appointed as Director of the Bhaktivedanta Institute (1974-), which is a center to promote studies about the relationship between science and vedanta. He has organized three International conferences on science and religion - First and Second World Congress for the Synthesis of Science and Religion (1986 & 1997) and First International Conference on the Study of Consciousness within Science (1990) where a galaxy of prominent scientists and religious leaders including several Nobel Laureates participated. He is also organizing "Second International Congress on Life and its Origin: Exploration from Science and Various Spiritual and Religious Traditions" in Rome, Italy from November 12-15, 2004. He has authored and edited several books including What is Matter and What is Life? (1977), Theobiology (1979), (Ed.) Synthesis of Science and Religion: Critical Essays and Dialogues (1987), Thoughts on Synthesis of Science and Religion (2001), and Seven Nobel Laureates on Science and Spirituality (2004). He is the Editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Bhaktivedanta Institute entitled, Savijnanam: Scientific Exploration for a Spiritual Paradigm (www.savijnanam.org).

Dr. Singh is a founding member of the United Religions Initiative (URI). He is president of its Manipur (Northeastern India) Cooperation Circle and instrumental in starting its Kuala Lumpur Cooperation Circle. He started a network of schools in Northeastern India where about 4000 students receive education centered on spiritual values. He is the founder and Director of "Ranganiketan Manipuri Cultural Arts Troupe" which has approximately 600 performances at over 300 venues in over 15 countries. He guides over a thousand of his students around the world in the techniques of spiritual life. His poems inspire introspection and his beautiful singing of prayer at the opening of various global peace and interfaith meetings is a much-awaited sacred moment.

Web: www.bvinst.org

Tucker, Mary Evelyn
Mary Evelyn Tucker is a professor of religion at Bucknell University in Lewisburg , Pennsylvania , where she teaches courses in world religions, Asian religions, religion and ecology. She held the National Endowment for the Humanities Chair in the Humanities at Bucknell from 1993-1996. She received her Ph.D. from Columbia University in the history of religions, specializing in Confucianism in Japan where she has lived for several years. She has traveled extensively in Asia over the last 30 years.

She has written Worldly Wonder: Religions Enter Their Ecological Phase (Open Court Press, 2003) as well as Moral and Spiritual Cultivation in Japanese Neo-Confucianism (SUNY, 1989). She co-edited Worldviews and Ecology (Orbis, 1994), Buddhism and Ecology (Harvard, 1997), Confucianism and Ecology (Harvard, 1998), and Hinduism and Ecology (Harvard, 2000). She also co-edited When Worlds Converge: What Science and Religion Tell Us About the Story of the Universe and Our Place In It (Open Court 2002). She co-edited two volumes with Tu Weiming on Confucian Spirituality published by Crossroad in the series on World Spirituality in 2003 (volume 1) and in 2004 (volume 2).

She and her husband, John Grim, directed the series of ten conferences on World Religions and Ecology at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School from 1996-1998. They organized three culminating conferences at Harvard, at the United Nations, and at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC. They are the series editors for the ten volumes that are being published from the conferences by the Center and distributed by Harvard University Press.

They edited a special issue of Daedalus on “Religion and Ecology: Can the Climate Change?” (Fall 2001) The focus of this issue is the ethical dimension of global warming. The papers are available at http://www.daedalus.amacad.org/issues/fall2001/fall2001.htm

In addition, they are now coordinating the ongoing Forum on Religion and Ecology (FORE) with a web site at the Harvard University Center for the Environment. http://environment.harvard.edu/religion

Mary Evelyn has been a committee member of the Interfaith Partnership for the Environment at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) since 1986 and is Vice President of the American Teilhard Association. She was a member of the Earth Charter Drafting Committee from 1997-2000.

van Huyssteen, J. Wenztel
Professor J. Wentzel van Huyssteen originally from South Africa, was Princeton Theological Seminary's first James I. McCord Professor of Theology and Science. He has research degrees in Philosophy (MA: University of Stellenbosch, South Africa) and Philosophical Theology (Ph.D: Free University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands) and he specializes in philosophy of science and religious epistemology. Van Huyssteen is married to Hester van Huyssteen and they have four children. He was Head of the Department of Religion at the University of Port Elizabeth, South Africa, 1972-1991. He has been a member of the Steering Committee of the Theology and Science Section of the American Academy of Religion since 1992. Dr van Huyssteen's awards include three Templeton Awards and the Andrew Murray and Venter Prizes for Academic Excellence for his book Theology and the Justification of Faith: Constructing Theories in Systematic Theology (1989). In 1998 van Huyssteen gave the John Albert Hall Lectures at the University of Victoria (British Columbia). His books, Essays in Postfoundationalist Theology (1997), Rethinking Theology and Science (1998, with Niels H. Gregersen), and Duet or Duel? Theology and Science in a Postmodern World (1998) were all nominated for the Templeton Awards for Outstanding Books in Theology and the Natural Sciences. In 1999 the Dutch Royal Academy for Arts and Sciences invited him to become the Chair of the International Committee for the Assessment of Theological Research in The Netherlands. He is also a member of the Worldwide Board of Advisors of the John Templeton Foundation. Dr. van Huyssteen is Editor-in-Chief of the new Encyclopedia for Religion and Science, (forthcoming, 2003).

Wason, Paul
Paul Wason was named Director of Science and Religion Programs for the John Templeton Foundation in 1999. He works with scientist, theologians, philosophers and ministers on programs which feature the constructive engagement of science and religion and which, together enhance our spiritual knowledge and further our understanding of the cosmos, life and humanity.

Dr. Wason is an anthropologist with a specialty in prehistoric archaeology. His esearch on inequality, social evolution and archaeological theory has been published as The Archaeology of Rank (Cambridge, 1994) and in other works, and he is currently studying the changing relations between religion, status and leadership as evidenced by the stone circles and other monument of Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe.

Before joining the Foundation, Dr. Wason spent ten years at Bates College as Director of Foundations and Corporations and as a sponsored research administrator, overseeing all aspects of Bates' interaction with private foundations, corporate-giving programs and government granting agencies. He also served on the College's multi-year strategic planning effort, and on L/A Excels, unique alliance of businesses, non-profit organizations and the Cities of Lewiston and Auburn, Maine for the purpose of implementing a new community vision. Dr. Wason has also served as Secretary/Treasurer of the Southern Maine Chapter of Sigma Xi, as Treasurer of The Children's Rainforest, USA, and as Faculty Advisor for the Bates Christian Fellowship. He is a member of the Social Science Commission of the American Scientific Affiliation.

He received his Ph.D. in anthropology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Bates College where he earned a B.S. in biology. He has engaged in field studies in Peru, Scotland, the Czech Republic, Maine and New York. Dr. Wason is married and has two children with whom he enjoys hiking, camping, kayaking and gardening.

Wolpe, Paul Root
Paul Root Wolpe, Ph.D., is a Senior Fellow of the Center of Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, where he holds appointments in the Department of Psychiatry and the Department of Sociology. He is the Director of the Program in Psychiatry and Ethics at Penn, and is a Senior Fellow of the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics. Dr. Wolpe also serves as the first Chief of Bioethics for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The office is responsible for safeguarding the protections of research subjects and astronauts both within NASA and among our international space partners. Dr. Wolpe is the author of numerous articles and book chapters in sociology, medicine, and bioethics, and has contributed to a variety of encyclopedias on bioethical issues. His research examines the role of ideology and culture in medical thought, encompassing such diverse fields as genetics and biotechnology, mental health and illness, sexuality and reproduction, health care reform, religion and its role in bioethical debate, human subjects research, and death and dying. Dr. Wolpe is the author of the textbook Sexuality and Gender in Society and the end-of-life guide In the Winter of Life. Dr. Wolpe sits on a number of national and international non-profit organizational boards, journal editorial boards, and working groups, and is a consultant to the biomedical industry. He serves as bioethics advisor to the Philadelphia Department of Human Services, Children and Youth Division. The winner of a number of teaching and writing awards, Dr. Wolpe has been chosen by The Teaching Company as a "Superstar Teacher of America," and two of his courses are nationally distributed on audio and videotape. Wolpe is a regular columnist on biotechnology for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and appears frequently in the broadcast media, including MSNBC, CBS and ABC Evening News, Dateline, and The Jim Lehrer Show, and has recently been cited in news sources such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, and U.S. News and World Report.

 


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