Brother Guy J. Consolmagno, S.J., director of the Vatican Observatory and president of the Vatican Observatory Foundation, will deliver the Rev. George V. Coyne, S.J. Lecture, “Your God is Too Small,” on Wednesday, April 12, at 7 p.m. at Weasler Auditorium.
The annual lecture is hosted by the Department of Physics in the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences. The lecture is open to the public. Register online.
Brother Consolmagno obtained his Bachelor of Science in 1974 and Master of Science in 1975 in Earth and planetary sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his Ph.D. in planetary science from the University of Arizona in 1978. He was then a postdoctoral fellow and lecturer at the Harvard College Observatory and continued as postdoc and lecturer at MIT.
In 1983, Brother Consolmagno left MIT to join the U.S. Peace Corps where he served for two years in Kenya teaching physics and astronomy. Upon his return to the U.S., he served as assistant professor of physics at Lafayette College where he taught until his entry into the Jesuit order in 1989. He took vows as a Jesuit brother in 1991, and studied philosophy and theology at Loyola University Chicago and physics at the University of Chicago before his assignment to the Vatican Observatory in 1993.
Brother Consolmagno has co-authored two astronomy books: “Turn Left at Orion” and “Worlds Apart.” He is also the author or co-author of four books exploring faith and science issues, including “The Way to the Dwelling of Light,” “Brother Astronomer,” “God’s Mechanics,” and “Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial?” He also edited “The Heavens Proclaim” and, since 2004, he has written a monthly column on astronomy for the British Catholic periodical, The Tablet.
The Rev. George V. Coyne, S.J. Annual Lecture in Astronomy and Astrophysics was established in 2005 in honor of Father Coyne, former director of the Vatican Observatory. In that role, he led a team of Jesuit astronomers in conducting cutting-edge astronomical research and in developing new telescopes and other instrumentation for studying the cosmos. The lecture series honors the tradition of excellence in research exemplified by Father Coyne by bringing an outstanding astronomer or astrophysicist to the Marquette campus to give a public lecture explaining their research.
