The University of Virginia

The Thomistic Institute at the University of Virginia and the St. Anselm Institute for Catholic Thought present a lecture by Prof. Jonathan Lunine of Cornell University titled “From Mendel to Pope Francis: Evolution from a Catholic Perspective.”

Monroe 130

Wednesday, Nov. 17

7:00 PM

This lecture is free and open to the public.

About the speaker:

Jonathan I. Lunine is The David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences at Cornell University and Director of the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science. His research focuses on astrophysics, planetary science, and astrobiology. In addition to his responsibilities in the classroom, he serves as Interdisciplinary Scientist on the James Webb Space Telescope project and is a co-investigator on the Juno mission currently in orbit around Jupiter.

Lunine is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is the 2014 recipient of the Jean Dominique Cassini Medal of the European Geosciences Union. He is the author of Astrobiology: A Multidisciplinary Approach and Earth: Evolution of a Habitable World.

Lunine obtained a B.S. in physics and astronomy from the University of Rochester (1980), an M.S. (1983) and a Ph.D. (1985) in planetary science from the California Institute of Technology.

He lives in Ithaca New York, where he is a member of St. Catherine of Siena parish. In 2016 Lunine helped to found the Society of Catholic Scientists and currently serves as its vice president.