The St. Albert Initiative on Science and the Catholic Faith will take place on March 25 in Philadelphia. Sponsored by the Society of Catholic Scientists, the McGrath Institute for Church Life, and the Collegium Institute, the program will feature short talks by Catholic scientists and the opportunity to meet with and ask questions of those scientists, who will represent various fields.
The program will be held from 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. at St. Joseph’s Prep, 1733 W. Girard Ave., Philadelphia. It is free for all attendees, and high school teachers will receive eight hours of professional development credit through Notre Dame University.
The days will start with an opening talk entitled “Science and Religion: The Myth of Conflict.” After that, there are three “lightning-round” talks lasting 25 minutes each, with a menu of eight to choose from. The subjects include the beginning of human life, Jesuit seismology, evolution and creation, and extraterrestrial life.
Speakers include Stephen M. Barr, president of the Society of Catholic Scientists and professor emeritus of particle physics at the University of Delaware; Jesuit Father David A. Brown, an astronomer at the Vatican Observatory; Heather Foucault-Camm, project director at the McGrath Institute for Church Life at Notre Dame; Maureen Condic, associate professor of neurobiology at the University of Utah; Also, Timothy Dolch, associate professor of physics at Hillsdale College; Cory Hayes, professor of philosophy and theology at St. Joseph Seminary in Covington, La.; Dominican Sister Stephen Patrick Joly, a biologist who teaches at Lansing (Mich.) Catholic High School; Daniel Kuebler, dean of the School of Natural and Applied Sciences at Franciscan University; and Natasha Toghramadjian, a doctoral student studying geophysics at Harvard University.
Attendees will have the opportunity to meet with the scientists one-on-one and ask them about their work. The scientists will represent a variety of age groups and fields of expertise.
More information and registration are available at https://sites.google.com/view/stalbertinitiative2023. The deadline to register is March 23.
