Speaker: Jennifer Wiseman, Astrophysicist Title: Discovery, Wonder, and Challenge: Science, Values, and Faith in the 21st Century
Science and technology are opening grand new doors of discovery and possibility. Artificial Intelligence can aid and protect life, gene editing can halt disease, and telescopes are revealing the early universe as well as planetary systems that could be habitable. What are the most promising advances? What ethical challenges are posed by new capabilities? We will discuss how Biblical faith and mainstream science relate in harmony to help our world.
Dr. Jennifer Wiseman is an astrophysicist who studies the formation of stars and planets in our galaxy using radio, infrared, and optical telescopes. She studied physics for her bachelor’s degree at MIT, discovering comet Wiseman-Skiff in 1987. After earning her Ph.D. in astronomy from Harvard University in 1995, she continued her research as a Jansky Fellow at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and as a Hubble Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Wiseman also has an interest in national science policy and has served as an American Physical Society Congressional Science Fellow on Capitol Hill. She is currently a senior astrophysicist with NASA, and is is Director Emeritus of the program of Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion for the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Wiseman enjoys giving talks on the excitement of science and astronomy to schools, youth and church groups, and civic organizations. She is a former Councilor of the American Astronomical Society and a former President of the American Scientific Affiliation. She is on the Board of the Biologos Foundation, for whom regularly speaks and has written articles on the relationship between Christian faith and her field of scientific expertise. She is a member of National Presbyterian Church.
Summer Speaker Series
What is the future of Christian community? As the world comes to grips with the impact of the pandemic and quarantine, exacerbated by increased polarization, what does that mean for the followers of Jesus Christ? Each Sunday this summer we’ll hear about an important aspect of our life together—as the Christian community and as Christians in the larger community context in which we live our daily lives. We will meet in person in Stone Fellowship Hall, 9:45-10:45 am, beginning Sunday June, 18 through August 27. We will also take advantage of technology to enable both remote attendance each week, as well as to have one or two remote speakers join us from across the country.
